PSYCHOANALYSIS
Various other alternative avenues of treatment are searched therefrom ranging from prescribed drugs, to psychedelics, to bodywork methods, to spirituality and more.
Now, it makes sense to look at etiology of this condition from the structural point of view, that being in the key of psychoanalytic metapsychology.
First of all, trauma is the origin of subjectivity. Every nascent subject experiences structural trauma due to somatic drive tension and inability to process it. In this situation (m)other aids a subject by nurturing, feeding, responding to displeasure with holding and lulling. Further sequential traumas occur with separation from the breast, toilet training and acquisition of language. In such a way a subject is gradually being taken out of 'imbroglio of primary narcissism', which is a fusion with (m)other, and taught how to process one's drive tension with signifiers taken from the Other of language.
There is a case, however, that a subject's drive tension has not been fully processed through language. In this case we can structurally speak of what psychoanalyst Paul Verhaeghe terms 'actualpathology'. In contrast to psychopathology, where disorder occurs on the level of language and imagery, actualpathology is a phenomenon of a body. On the level of a body, drive tension is experienced in a variety of ways, such as fragmentation of a body, unbearable intensities fluxing through a body, varieties of chronic pains, which occur at random, impairments in cognition and memory function and more. On the level of sexuality actualpathology may result in a combination of promiscuity with anxiety about intimacy. On the level of a psyche, however, no discernible symptoms can be traced, since processing of these phenomena through the Other has not taken place at all or has only taken place partially.
Now, it makes sense to look at etiology of this condition from the structural point of view, that being in the key of psychoanalytic metapsychology.
First of all, trauma is the origin of subjectivity. Every nascent subject experiences structural trauma due to somatic drive tension and inability to process it. In this situation (m)other aids a subject by nurturing, feeding, responding to displeasure with holding and lulling. Further sequential traumas occur with separation from the breast, toilet training and acquisition of language. In such a way a subject is gradually being taken out of 'imbroglio of primary narcissism', which is a fusion with (m)other, and taught how to process one's drive tension with signifiers taken from the Other of language.
There is a case, however, that a subject's drive tension has not been fully processed through language. In this case we can structurally speak of what psychoanalyst Paul Verhaeghe terms 'actualpathology'. In contrast to psychopathology, where disorder occurs on the level of language and imagery, actualpathology is a phenomenon of a body. On the level of a body, drive tension is experienced in a variety of ways, such as fragmentation of a body, unbearable intensities fluxing through a body, varieties of chronic pains, which occur at random, impairments in cognition and memory function and more. On the level of sexuality actualpathology may result in a combination of promiscuity with anxiety about intimacy. On the level of a psyche, however, no discernible symptoms can be traced, since processing of these phenomena through the Other has not taken place at all or has only taken place partially.
PTSD, substance (ab)use and arts of embodiment
These days Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a widespread diagnostic category. According to certain classification systems, such as Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders(DSM), it encompasses wide range of phenomena, including memory loss, somatisation, mood swings, impaired cognitive function, addiction and more. The rationale being that experience of trauma has caused shattering to a psyche and nervous system, with above symptoms as outcomes.
The treatment of PTSD appears to be a challenging undertaking with patients' often reversal to denser symptomatology and, due to negative transference, rejection by therapists or dropping out of therapy due to distrust in therapists.
The treatment of PTSD appears to be a challenging undertaking with patients' often reversal to denser symptomatology and, due to negative transference, rejection by therapists or dropping out of therapy due to distrust in therapists.
Acute accidental trauma with recurring PTSD more often than not is a reversal to actualpathology, which has already been there in a subject. This explains failed treatments and going at length in attempt to actually 'cure' PTSD.
This also explains attempt of subjects with actualpathology to self-medicate by using various substances prescribed or otherwise: since phenomena appear on the level of a body, it makes sense to tackle them on the same level. Unfortunately, this doesn't work because alteration in body's chemical functioning does nothing to drive tension, which hasn't entered process of symbolisation. The drive, left unprocessed, causes reoccurrence of symptoms.
There are the following behavior patterns, which are common to actualpathological position in a spectrum of PTSD:
- aggressive acting out (drive tension is released violently to the outside);
- automutilation (peak of drive tension is soothed by causing harm to a body);
- projective identification (drive tension is projected onto another in an attempt to master it externally);
- addiction (internal dis-ease caused by drive tension is medicated qua substances);
The characteristic of these behavioral strategies is that they attempt to emulate intensity of traumatic experience in order to master it. Yet they all fail, because structurally a subject-formation proper has not taken place fully. That is, drive tension pertaining to the Real has not been met by the guaranteeing Other and processed through the Symbolic. In subjects for whom this is the case, experience of another's drive is inherently traumatic, since there is no barrier of symbolisation that separates the Real from conventional psychic reality.
The treatment for actualpathology and PTSD subsequently is redoing of subject-formation process, whereby a subject acquires signifiers to process the Real of a body. Basically, one searches for systematic ways to name and nail bodily phenomena so that they are no longer disturbing. The key is that those ways are to be voluntarily adopted by a subject and not imposed or suggested by a therapist. This is because in actualpathological position the Other is met with inherent distrust: 'it was the other who has not protected me from abuse' - a line often implied by those who encountered sexual abuse during childhood. Therefore a suitable therapeutic relation must be established, which enables trust and possibility for a subject to discover signifiers or signifying systems befitting to tackle their particular manifestation of bodily Real.
Here we come directly to a quality of signifying systems and how well they are able to symbolise phenomena of the drive, which naturally resist symbolisation. Or, in other words, how well can a given system name the truth and render it bearable.
Here are a few criteria, which may be useful in this search:
- whether a given system has recorded outcomes of complete recovery from existential suffering;
- whether a given system has a lineage of practitioners, who have developed it and brought themselves towards achieving various degrees of recovery;
- whether a system uses substances: in the case of actualpathology and PTSD substance-based treatment is inadequate, since it doesn't tackle existential tension of the drive;
- whether a system encourages identification with a certain figure who has attained complete recovery: no amount of projective identification can tackle the Real of a body; it has to be done through direct deliberate work of mastering done by a subject;
- whether a system includes arts of embodiment, which allow mastery of the drive qua methods of inner energetic work and movement arts; this is recommended, since the body still needs to be freed from energetic debris caused by traumatic encounter, even after a psyche has been given adequate signifiers to process the Real.
Having settled for a particular tradition, which corresponds to above criteria, one is to practice in accordance with it.
In terms of such tradition as Buddhism, this falls under the heading of the Four Noble Truths. There is no other phenomenon than trauma that exposes one to foundational insight: there is suffering. There is no other cause for it than craving (precisely craving for unity with (m)other fosters non-separation and therefore lack of processing of the Real through the Symbolic). No other path to end traumatic anguish than systematic training in virtuous conduct, discernment and meditative cultivation. There is no other cessation of suffering, but through abandoning of craving for totality grasped from another and learning to dwell non-relying on anything in the world.
I apologise if above exposition caused any displeasure to those who have read through it.
May you be well and free from all suffering and trauma.
There are the following behavior patterns, which are common to actualpathological position in a spectrum of PTSD:
- aggressive acting out (drive tension is released violently to the outside);
- automutilation (peak of drive tension is soothed by causing harm to a body);
- projective identification (drive tension is projected onto another in an attempt to master it externally);
- addiction (internal dis-ease caused by drive tension is medicated qua substances);
The characteristic of these behavioral strategies is that they attempt to emulate intensity of traumatic experience in order to master it. Yet they all fail, because structurally a subject-formation proper has not taken place fully. That is, drive tension pertaining to the Real has not been met by the guaranteeing Other and processed through the Symbolic. In subjects for whom this is the case, experience of another's drive is inherently traumatic, since there is no barrier of symbolisation that separates the Real from conventional psychic reality.
The treatment for actualpathology and PTSD subsequently is redoing of subject-formation process, whereby a subject acquires signifiers to process the Real of a body. Basically, one searches for systematic ways to name and nail bodily phenomena so that they are no longer disturbing. The key is that those ways are to be voluntarily adopted by a subject and not imposed or suggested by a therapist. This is because in actualpathological position the Other is met with inherent distrust: 'it was the other who has not protected me from abuse' - a line often implied by those who encountered sexual abuse during childhood. Therefore a suitable therapeutic relation must be established, which enables trust and possibility for a subject to discover signifiers or signifying systems befitting to tackle their particular manifestation of bodily Real.
Here we come directly to a quality of signifying systems and how well they are able to symbolise phenomena of the drive, which naturally resist symbolisation. Or, in other words, how well can a given system name the truth and render it bearable.
Here are a few criteria, which may be useful in this search:
- whether a given system has recorded outcomes of complete recovery from existential suffering;
- whether a given system has a lineage of practitioners, who have developed it and brought themselves towards achieving various degrees of recovery;
- whether a system uses substances: in the case of actualpathology and PTSD substance-based treatment is inadequate, since it doesn't tackle existential tension of the drive;
- whether a system encourages identification with a certain figure who has attained complete recovery: no amount of projective identification can tackle the Real of a body; it has to be done through direct deliberate work of mastering done by a subject;
- whether a system includes arts of embodiment, which allow mastery of the drive qua methods of inner energetic work and movement arts; this is recommended, since the body still needs to be freed from energetic debris caused by traumatic encounter, even after a psyche has been given adequate signifiers to process the Real.
Having settled for a particular tradition, which corresponds to above criteria, one is to practice in accordance with it.
In terms of such tradition as Buddhism, this falls under the heading of the Four Noble Truths. There is no other phenomenon than trauma that exposes one to foundational insight: there is suffering. There is no other cause for it than craving (precisely craving for unity with (m)other fosters non-separation and therefore lack of processing of the Real through the Symbolic). No other path to end traumatic anguish than systematic training in virtuous conduct, discernment and meditative cultivation. There is no other cessation of suffering, but through abandoning of craving for totality grasped from another and learning to dwell non-relying on anything in the world.
I apologise if above exposition caused any displeasure to those who have read through it.
May you be well and free from all suffering and trauma.
Psychology, psychotherapy, psychoanalysis and Buddhadhamma. There is an ever-growing concern for 'mental health'. It is jus as widespread as concern for physical health. Naturally, there are ways to address it, as by the law of demand and supply. Let's explore what's present as well as the nature of the concern itself. Psychology as known today arose from psychiatry and psychoanalysis. Studies of Kraepelin, Blueler, Freud, Jung, Lacan and others have led to and formalised the method of 'talking cure'. The derivatives of this are many: ego-psychology, gestalt-psychology, transpersonal psychology, cognitive behavior therapy, narrative therapy, and more. The gist of it is engagement with another person who, qua language, ascribes change to an individual's state of mind. Psychotherapy took that, which couldn't be 'cured' by talking, and treated it with drugs. Alongside that institutionalisation was developed to 'contain' individuals labeled 'treatment-resistant'. Various forms of social safety-netting was developed therefrom to cushion the impact. Disability insurance schemes and peer-support being forms of the latter. |
Psychoanalysis differs from the above two approaches in that it engages an individual into a long-term process of deconstructing one's self-identity. At least Lacanian psychoanalysis does.
It involves scrutinizing and abandoning all motivations, which are behind one's symptoms, thereby coming to a structural understanding of one's psychic functioning. Namely, it leads one towards glimpsing of that, which in Buddhist framework is called 'anatta': no-self. As such, it provides insight into causal nature of one's symptoms, traumas and subjectivity itself, which serves as a basis for insight into inconstancy and therefore lack of enduring substance behind that, which is one's self. At that, Lacanian psychoanalysis has reached an overarching limit of that, which 'talking cure' can do.
Yet one is to go further still, for 'mind' and 'health' are only at the entry level of understanding for those who have glimpsed no-self.
Buddhadhamma is precisely the vehicle for going beyond 'normality' towards that, which is 'supernormal' or indeed sublime. To start with, Buddhadhamma doesn't settle with a few therapy sessions a week over a number of years. Instead, it is something to be done over a lifetime, multiple lifetimes, in fact. The nature of the task at hand is very clearly defined: one is to abandon all causes that lead to suffering of existence itself. Existence includes birth, aging and death, while causes of suffering include greed, hatred and delusion.
Buddhadhamma is very radical at that in comparison with 'psy-' approaches. It asserts that the highest blessing for any individual is to abandon worldly life, undertake precepts of celibacy and austerity, develop the higher mind and realise ending of all stress of existence.
This is something impossible to handle on the couch talking to someone else for a fixed fee in return. At that, truth of life's blessings is indeed priceless. One cannot 'therapy' one's way towards it, whether it be qua talking or drugs.
Furthermore, it is clearly stated in the teaching on development of the higher mind, that the more one talks something over, the more one solidifies it into one's being, making it a 'self'. This is why in the context of Dhamma practice, one adopts 'right speech' and talks truthfully, non-harshly, to the point and with intention to benefit another. There is nothing in Buddhadhamma that mentions necessity of investigating one's childhood traumas, relationships to one's parents, nurturing one's inner child, releasing one's emotions or for that matter, defining and obliterating one's subjective structure. There is only a teaching on the origin and cessation of stress.
In this context, actual- and psychopathology take root in the non-recognition of the truths of stress. Inevitable cessation of life, mortality of psychophysical aggregates and separation from all cherished and loved are either repressed, disavowed or rejected facts, which are at the root of any form of psychic suffering.
Millenia-old traditions of liberation, such as Buddhism, are not working with trifling symptoms of neurosis, they are disjointed from socio-economic mechanisms of 'psy'-cures, but rely on sincerity, humility and effort of individuals who dare to take responsibility for their own minds. One who genuinely seeks peace and freedom will find these teachings and put them into practice for the welfare of oneself and others. This is completely free of charge.
May all beings be free from psychic suffering!
Yet one is to go further still, for 'mind' and 'health' are only at the entry level of understanding for those who have glimpsed no-self.
Buddhadhamma is precisely the vehicle for going beyond 'normality' towards that, which is 'supernormal' or indeed sublime. To start with, Buddhadhamma doesn't settle with a few therapy sessions a week over a number of years. Instead, it is something to be done over a lifetime, multiple lifetimes, in fact. The nature of the task at hand is very clearly defined: one is to abandon all causes that lead to suffering of existence itself. Existence includes birth, aging and death, while causes of suffering include greed, hatred and delusion.
Buddhadhamma is very radical at that in comparison with 'psy-' approaches. It asserts that the highest blessing for any individual is to abandon worldly life, undertake precepts of celibacy and austerity, develop the higher mind and realise ending of all stress of existence.
This is something impossible to handle on the couch talking to someone else for a fixed fee in return. At that, truth of life's blessings is indeed priceless. One cannot 'therapy' one's way towards it, whether it be qua talking or drugs.
Furthermore, it is clearly stated in the teaching on development of the higher mind, that the more one talks something over, the more one solidifies it into one's being, making it a 'self'. This is why in the context of Dhamma practice, one adopts 'right speech' and talks truthfully, non-harshly, to the point and with intention to benefit another. There is nothing in Buddhadhamma that mentions necessity of investigating one's childhood traumas, relationships to one's parents, nurturing one's inner child, releasing one's emotions or for that matter, defining and obliterating one's subjective structure. There is only a teaching on the origin and cessation of stress.
In this context, actual- and psychopathology take root in the non-recognition of the truths of stress. Inevitable cessation of life, mortality of psychophysical aggregates and separation from all cherished and loved are either repressed, disavowed or rejected facts, which are at the root of any form of psychic suffering.
Millenia-old traditions of liberation, such as Buddhism, are not working with trifling symptoms of neurosis, they are disjointed from socio-economic mechanisms of 'psy'-cures, but rely on sincerity, humility and effort of individuals who dare to take responsibility for their own minds. One who genuinely seeks peace and freedom will find these teachings and put them into practice for the welfare of oneself and others. This is completely free of charge.
May all beings be free from psychic suffering!
On ritual
A ritual can be defined as an immersive practice. What are we immersing ourselves into? On a closest look, it is our own build up. Immersion into external phenomena is only a façade, since it is through the sense-media that we perceive the external.
In the process of perceiving phenomena, we layer acquired conditioning of our biases and (mis)understandings over them. As a result, a mental formation, which represents phenomena, arises in our minds, thereby distorting the thing.
In this fashion, we only see a reflection of our acquired self and its (lack of) knowledge in the things that we perceive. Here is why a ritual in a truest sense is only the immersion within.
Having established the light of knowing, we dive into layering of structures deemed to be 'us'. Here we aim at elucidating: raising the energy of direct knowing, thereby breaking through the entranced state of self-identification.
It is just that.
The more we sustain unadulterated awareness, the more that, which is of the nature of delusion, dissolves and falls away. This is how one awakens from lethargy of habitualisation and enters the Way.
Different traditions have developed varied ways of accessing and navigating this process. Some use seated posture with closed eyelids, consolidate the energy and direct it to an object of focus. Others use elaborate textures of music and dance in order to distract the acquired mind, soothe it, make it malleable and then dismantle it with a crack of a whip. Either way, that, which have been sleeping, wakes up. And that, which has been stagnant, enlivens, elevates, and, ultimately, leaves.
Below is such a practice - Bantengan Nuswantara - The Bull Trance Ritual.
There is no need for explanation here.
The energy speaks for itself!
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE>
In the process of perceiving phenomena, we layer acquired conditioning of our biases and (mis)understandings over them. As a result, a mental formation, which represents phenomena, arises in our minds, thereby distorting the thing.
In this fashion, we only see a reflection of our acquired self and its (lack of) knowledge in the things that we perceive. Here is why a ritual in a truest sense is only the immersion within.
Having established the light of knowing, we dive into layering of structures deemed to be 'us'. Here we aim at elucidating: raising the energy of direct knowing, thereby breaking through the entranced state of self-identification.
It is just that.
The more we sustain unadulterated awareness, the more that, which is of the nature of delusion, dissolves and falls away. This is how one awakens from lethargy of habitualisation and enters the Way.
Different traditions have developed varied ways of accessing and navigating this process. Some use seated posture with closed eyelids, consolidate the energy and direct it to an object of focus. Others use elaborate textures of music and dance in order to distract the acquired mind, soothe it, make it malleable and then dismantle it with a crack of a whip. Either way, that, which have been sleeping, wakes up. And that, which has been stagnant, enlivens, elevates, and, ultimately, leaves.
Below is such a practice - Bantengan Nuswantara - The Bull Trance Ritual.
There is no need for explanation here.
The energy speaks for itself!
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE>
There is an aspiration to attain a certain wholeness, which is often articulated within the circles of various practitioners. This may refer to a state whereby there is no lack, no weakness and no suffering. It may also be a state of satiety, safety, inner peace and power. It is a state sought for as a prerequisite for happiness, or so it is perceived.
Yet lets examine these perceptions closer. There is an assumption that such a state of wholeness has once been present, but then lost. Such as, a baby is in this state of completeness. Whilst this is true to a certain extent, particularly in regards to a baby's centralised energy, there is not much else to it apart from idealised imagination.
Structurally, there has never been a state of wholeness in anyone born. One may argue that there are exceptions, if one is to believe such stories as that of the Buddha's birth. Yet this is the nature of exceptions.
Generally, a new born is experiencing a state of fragmentation, due to inability to master the chaotic flux of psychophysical intensities that arise.
In order to master this flux, an infant is drawn to take an alienation in the image and desire of an other, a primary caregiver, to be more precise. By acquiring other's affection as one's own, an infant takes on an imaginary totality. This sense of totality prevails over inchoate intensities, which arise due to kamma. This sense of totality - imaginary wholeness - is a blueprint of an ego. Starting from here, a process of incorporation and expulsion takes place. Hereby a nascent subject acquires identifications on the level of body, speech and mind, which support the initial blueprint of alienation. At the same time phenomena, which challenge, oppose or directly cancel out this initial identity are expelled, pushed out of consciousness.
Further nuancing of egoic totality takes place through Oedipus complex - a process of separation from imaginary state of unity with the first other qua law and prohibition of the Other of language, whichever figure represents it. Acquisition of societal norms, commandments, dialectic thinking, education and gaining of skills foster this process of separation. This process rolls on, and, if spiritual teachings are introduced by the Other in a coherent manner, may lead a subject to realisation of non-self. In such a way understanding of illusory nature of totality as well as language itself dawns and breaks down all identifications. Yet this can happen only if ability to sustain oneself qua mindfulness and wisdom, outside of identity-taking processes, has been developed and cultivated.
In a non-structural way, seeking for wholeness risks to be a craving for a lost state of egoic totality, which has been acquired through the first other. Those seeking such wholeness may wish to erode nuancing quality of language through substance use, trance states, hypnosis or romantic love. They may achieve temporary unity with potency and power, which imaginary identity initially grants, yet apotheosis of this process is inevitably psychotic brake. if not pushed to such an extent, a process of seeking for imaginary totality will just result in delusion and addiction, which sustains that delusion.
In this way, understood structurally, correct wholeness must be clearly differentiated from egoic totality. The former is a continuously dynamic state dependent on developed qualities of calm and insight as well as cultivation of Ten Perfections. And even then such state will not be a perfect 'feel good' state, which imaginary totality is. Instead, it will be a state of contentment, nuanced by wisdom. In this state, one understands, that in order to be happy, one does not need to be feeling good, whole or complete.
May all beings find true wholeness!
Structurally, there has never been a state of wholeness in anyone born. One may argue that there are exceptions, if one is to believe such stories as that of the Buddha's birth. Yet this is the nature of exceptions.
Generally, a new born is experiencing a state of fragmentation, due to inability to master the chaotic flux of psychophysical intensities that arise.
In order to master this flux, an infant is drawn to take an alienation in the image and desire of an other, a primary caregiver, to be more precise. By acquiring other's affection as one's own, an infant takes on an imaginary totality. This sense of totality prevails over inchoate intensities, which arise due to kamma. This sense of totality - imaginary wholeness - is a blueprint of an ego. Starting from here, a process of incorporation and expulsion takes place. Hereby a nascent subject acquires identifications on the level of body, speech and mind, which support the initial blueprint of alienation. At the same time phenomena, which challenge, oppose or directly cancel out this initial identity are expelled, pushed out of consciousness.
Further nuancing of egoic totality takes place through Oedipus complex - a process of separation from imaginary state of unity with the first other qua law and prohibition of the Other of language, whichever figure represents it. Acquisition of societal norms, commandments, dialectic thinking, education and gaining of skills foster this process of separation. This process rolls on, and, if spiritual teachings are introduced by the Other in a coherent manner, may lead a subject to realisation of non-self. In such a way understanding of illusory nature of totality as well as language itself dawns and breaks down all identifications. Yet this can happen only if ability to sustain oneself qua mindfulness and wisdom, outside of identity-taking processes, has been developed and cultivated.
In a non-structural way, seeking for wholeness risks to be a craving for a lost state of egoic totality, which has been acquired through the first other. Those seeking such wholeness may wish to erode nuancing quality of language through substance use, trance states, hypnosis or romantic love. They may achieve temporary unity with potency and power, which imaginary identity initially grants, yet apotheosis of this process is inevitably psychotic brake. if not pushed to such an extent, a process of seeking for imaginary totality will just result in delusion and addiction, which sustains that delusion.
In this way, understood structurally, correct wholeness must be clearly differentiated from egoic totality. The former is a continuously dynamic state dependent on developed qualities of calm and insight as well as cultivation of Ten Perfections. And even then such state will not be a perfect 'feel good' state, which imaginary totality is. Instead, it will be a state of contentment, nuanced by wisdom. In this state, one understands, that in order to be happy, one does not need to be feeling good, whole or complete.
May all beings find true wholeness!
On wholeness
One, who has become efficient at sustaining set of qualities peculiar to a given practice, is said to have embodied the practice.
On another level, one may be ‘embodied’, which is a cliché signifier pertaining to being present in the body, rather than in the thinking mind or intellect. Someone who is ‘embodied’ therefore is not only acutely aware of the body, but also skillful at abiding in it. Bodily action of such a someone is graceful and precise, not haphazard and jumbled. Also, such a someone supposedly maintains this state of awareness, thereby gaining experiential knowledge with a continuous reference to a body. Somatic empathy, intuition, gut instinct, development of skillful habits of diet, exercise, bodily care can be seen to arise from this. ‘Embodied person’ in this case is synonymous to ‘conscious person’ if one is to follow a new age jargon.
Yet on a whole other level, embodiment is that which you are.
You are an immortal, nameless, beginningless consciousness occupying (embodying) this physical form. The Real, which you are, outside and deep within this acquired mind with its perceptions and intellect, is what has born witness to beginning of your self, yet it humbly has stepped into background as that very self gained strength, voice and position in the conventional world. The spirit is thus nourishing one, until one has grasped onto the mind, and then it becomes outshined by the mind. When this has happened, one may be said to be no longer embodied, but incarnate as a person. Naturally, phenomena of stagnation, wearing out, dimming of the faculties set in, since primordial light, which gives animation to all forms, is substituted with not-so-conscious appropriation of preferred modes of conduct, systems of thought, series of actions: career, philosophy, creed, etc. This very name and a person represented by it become that, which overshadows the spirit in favor of gratification and satisfaction, which this very ‘being someone’ affords.
In this sense genuine embodiment is ‘reversing the course’ – retracing back from acquired to congenital, from being someone to thusness beyond the mind.
Embodiment of the Real is precisely aimed at that.
On another level, one may be ‘embodied’, which is a cliché signifier pertaining to being present in the body, rather than in the thinking mind or intellect. Someone who is ‘embodied’ therefore is not only acutely aware of the body, but also skillful at abiding in it. Bodily action of such a someone is graceful and precise, not haphazard and jumbled. Also, such a someone supposedly maintains this state of awareness, thereby gaining experiential knowledge with a continuous reference to a body. Somatic empathy, intuition, gut instinct, development of skillful habits of diet, exercise, bodily care can be seen to arise from this. ‘Embodied person’ in this case is synonymous to ‘conscious person’ if one is to follow a new age jargon.
Yet on a whole other level, embodiment is that which you are.
You are an immortal, nameless, beginningless consciousness occupying (embodying) this physical form. The Real, which you are, outside and deep within this acquired mind with its perceptions and intellect, is what has born witness to beginning of your self, yet it humbly has stepped into background as that very self gained strength, voice and position in the conventional world. The spirit is thus nourishing one, until one has grasped onto the mind, and then it becomes outshined by the mind. When this has happened, one may be said to be no longer embodied, but incarnate as a person. Naturally, phenomena of stagnation, wearing out, dimming of the faculties set in, since primordial light, which gives animation to all forms, is substituted with not-so-conscious appropriation of preferred modes of conduct, systems of thought, series of actions: career, philosophy, creed, etc. This very name and a person represented by it become that, which overshadows the spirit in favor of gratification and satisfaction, which this very ‘being someone’ affords.
In this sense genuine embodiment is ‘reversing the course’ – retracing back from acquired to congenital, from being someone to thusness beyond the mind.
Embodiment of the Real is precisely aimed at that.
What is embodiment?
This word is certainly a cliché and a misused signifier. Let’s break it down.
On one level, to embody something, be it a quality, a character, a spirit, a system of practice, an art or a profession, means to structure one’s body in such a way, so that it becomes a vehicle for representation of phenomena thus embodied. In this case a body is a medium, which allows phenomena to inhabit it. Through continuous repetition of a method, a teaching, a creed, a craft, through modes of conduct relevant to it, one changes one’s somatosensory makeup in such a way so that one is best aligned with it.
On one level, to embody something, be it a quality, a character, a spirit, a system of practice, an art or a profession, means to structure one’s body in such a way, so that it becomes a vehicle for representation of phenomena thus embodied. In this case a body is a medium, which allows phenomena to inhabit it. Through continuous repetition of a method, a teaching, a creed, a craft, through modes of conduct relevant to it, one changes one’s somatosensory makeup in such a way so that one is best aligned with it.
Refuge for the Psyche
From here arises the need to bind jouissance emanating from the Real by means of either new libidinal identification, which is often accomplished through therapy, or by means of wisdom.
Even though the first way may offer some solace and power, it is still unreliable, due to impermanence: all formations (sinthomatic ways of binding jouissance are complex mental formations) are eventually falling apart, simply due to aging, sickness and inevitable death of a body. Devoid of their vitality, mental formations collapse, like puppets, whose strings are cut off.
The way of wisdom leads to something that approximates reliable refuge. In this way a subject investigates phenomena, which comprise one's sense of self, investigates jouissance and develops the non-sinthomatic relationship with the Real of mental-physical distress.
On this path one is bound to honestly relate to causality of distress, which is attachment. Rather than grasping to heal the damaged/raped/disabled body or alter/improve/develop body image or change/recover/improve lifestyle based on libidinal identifications, one relinquishes the very need to rely on such things as body, its sexualised image or lifestyle associated with it. In such a way one abandons attachment through wisdom.
Needless to say that the above requires tedious practice. A subject on the path of training one's psyche in non-reliance on anything in the world has to endure intensities of jouissance, maintain constant vigilance over psycho-physical faculties and learn to harmonise internal energies. The study of meditation, qigong and moral conduct is required to sustain oneself, having entered the stream, which leads to freedom.
A very different relationship with the world and beings arises therefrom. A subject on the path of inner cultivation seeks good friends who can give example and guidance in the way of practice, not to attach to them, but to practice along with them. A subject approaches the world with attitude of renunciation, non-violence, without aversion or resentment. It is because suffering of others becomes very obvious, when one has discovered causes of one's own suffering. Awareness of tremendous possibility to end suffering arises simultaneously as one discovers resources of virtue, energy and generosity within oneself. In such a one there is no longer fear of failure, since constant sense of urgency has blended into ceaseless commitment to endure, work for the benefit of oneself and others and to not be distracted by hastiness of the world, which is motivated by craving and passion. Timelessness arises thus: neither retreating nor advancing, one gradually develops the path of abandoning attachments.
Established within such a frame of practice, one can rely on a true refuge. A true refuge leads to complete freedom, which requires, in a long run, total commitment to the Path.
To conclude, for those, who are seeking to sustain their sense of well-being and build lifestyles/communities/society around it: it is a path leading to nowhere. Do not try to change the world in order to fit your vision of how things can/should be - it is another form of attachment, which will bring you to ground zero of trauma. Rather than drowning in views, put energy into cultivating reliable refuge within your heart: you will see how the world around you start to change accordingly.
With love,
May everyone be well.
Even though the first way may offer some solace and power, it is still unreliable, due to impermanence: all formations (sinthomatic ways of binding jouissance are complex mental formations) are eventually falling apart, simply due to aging, sickness and inevitable death of a body. Devoid of their vitality, mental formations collapse, like puppets, whose strings are cut off.
The way of wisdom leads to something that approximates reliable refuge. In this way a subject investigates phenomena, which comprise one's sense of self, investigates jouissance and develops the non-sinthomatic relationship with the Real of mental-physical distress.
On this path one is bound to honestly relate to causality of distress, which is attachment. Rather than grasping to heal the damaged/raped/disabled body or alter/improve/develop body image or change/recover/improve lifestyle based on libidinal identifications, one relinquishes the very need to rely on such things as body, its sexualised image or lifestyle associated with it. In such a way one abandons attachment through wisdom.
Needless to say that the above requires tedious practice. A subject on the path of training one's psyche in non-reliance on anything in the world has to endure intensities of jouissance, maintain constant vigilance over psycho-physical faculties and learn to harmonise internal energies. The study of meditation, qigong and moral conduct is required to sustain oneself, having entered the stream, which leads to freedom.
A very different relationship with the world and beings arises therefrom. A subject on the path of inner cultivation seeks good friends who can give example and guidance in the way of practice, not to attach to them, but to practice along with them. A subject approaches the world with attitude of renunciation, non-violence, without aversion or resentment. It is because suffering of others becomes very obvious, when one has discovered causes of one's own suffering. Awareness of tremendous possibility to end suffering arises simultaneously as one discovers resources of virtue, energy and generosity within oneself. In such a one there is no longer fear of failure, since constant sense of urgency has blended into ceaseless commitment to endure, work for the benefit of oneself and others and to not be distracted by hastiness of the world, which is motivated by craving and passion. Timelessness arises thus: neither retreating nor advancing, one gradually develops the path of abandoning attachments.
Established within such a frame of practice, one can rely on a true refuge. A true refuge leads to complete freedom, which requires, in a long run, total commitment to the Path.
To conclude, for those, who are seeking to sustain their sense of well-being and build lifestyles/communities/society around it: it is a path leading to nowhere. Do not try to change the world in order to fit your vision of how things can/should be - it is another form of attachment, which will bring you to ground zero of trauma. Rather than drowning in views, put energy into cultivating reliable refuge within your heart: you will see how the world around you start to change accordingly.
With love,
May everyone be well.
What is a refuge for the heart? That is, what is a reliable source of support for the psyche?
What is not a refuge is easier to answer, yet hard to accept. Firstly, libidinal pleasure is not a refuge. A sense of wholeness and well-being that come from nourishing and guarding the libido is unreliable. It is easy to see when supporting conditions for libido, such as a body, a body image or a lifestyle based on certain libidinal identification, get damaged or disabled. In that instance a subject experiences a certain loss of self: one libidinally invested identification collapses and a subject faces the Real.
What is not a refuge is easier to answer, yet hard to accept. Firstly, libidinal pleasure is not a refuge. A sense of wholeness and well-being that come from nourishing and guarding the libido is unreliable. It is easy to see when supporting conditions for libido, such as a body, a body image or a lifestyle based on certain libidinal identification, get damaged or disabled. In that instance a subject experiences a certain loss of self: one libidinally invested identification collapses and a subject faces the Real.
The demand for healing, which doctors, therapists, trainers and caretakers are often presented with entails a deep-rooted fantasy at the core of it. As much as anything else, this fantasy has to do with the structure of the subject – a very predicament of a human being positioned between craving, language and the divine.
To start with, the demand is usually present, whereas a desire may not be.
To start with, the demand is usually present, whereas a desire may not be.
On the level of the demand, a fantasy is as follows. There is something within ‘me’ that is damaged/destroyed/sick/missing and I need ‘you’ to help me fix/recover/cure/find it, which will grant ‘me’ an access to life fully lived. Regardless the issue within and the discourse it is framed with, the above structure is present.
We can discern a few elements within this structure: speaking ego, innate core within ego, center of this core, which is troubling, the other, whom the demand is addressed to, the demand itself, which content is fantasmatic, since a speaker envisages an outcome that they expect to receive from the other.
In many new age therapies, the direction of the treatment would proceed with amplifying the envisaging process, discerning elements, which need to be developed in order to ‘manifest’ the ideal state envisaged. In yet other approaches center of an ego’s core is accessed, its contents verbalised’ and integration of the ‘shadow’ thereby achieved. Practices hinged upon renunciation would seek to abandon both speaking ego and its traumatic core (read, the Imaginary and the Real) and establish the mind, which is constantly mindful, in a discourse that most skillfully labels psychophysical phenomena (read, the Symbolic).
On the level of a desire, which not all subjects would be able to ascend to, a fantasy goes as follows. There is something troubling, which also has a quality of dissatisfactoriness to it; by addressing the other, it can be processed, and the energy thus released may be applied to achieve desirable.
Notice the difference of elements within the structure: speaking ego is replaced with language itself, distressing phenomenon is seen as lacking, there is certainty in the capacity of the other to process this phenomenon and a lack of phantasmatic ideal about final achievement of complete fulfillment. This is so because presence of a desire already testifies for a certain freedom within the psychic apparatus. Namely, it is a freedom, that comes from knowing and accepting ubiquity of distress within phenomenal existence. Due to this freedom, the self to a certain extent is released, its grip on the mind is less tight in comparison to the level of the demand. Yet there is still a fantasy remaining, precisely as a conviction that there is a phenomenon impinging on the mind.
For a subject able to pursue a desire, its energies must be directed towards the right practice of discernment – vipassana – in order to recognise fundamental voidness of all phenomena. For a subject dwelling on the level of the demand, a desire must be brought into being via recognition of arresting quality of phenomenal existence – dukkha. The first noble truth lays therein.
We can discern a few elements within this structure: speaking ego, innate core within ego, center of this core, which is troubling, the other, whom the demand is addressed to, the demand itself, which content is fantasmatic, since a speaker envisages an outcome that they expect to receive from the other.
In many new age therapies, the direction of the treatment would proceed with amplifying the envisaging process, discerning elements, which need to be developed in order to ‘manifest’ the ideal state envisaged. In yet other approaches center of an ego’s core is accessed, its contents verbalised’ and integration of the ‘shadow’ thereby achieved. Practices hinged upon renunciation would seek to abandon both speaking ego and its traumatic core (read, the Imaginary and the Real) and establish the mind, which is constantly mindful, in a discourse that most skillfully labels psychophysical phenomena (read, the Symbolic).
On the level of a desire, which not all subjects would be able to ascend to, a fantasy goes as follows. There is something troubling, which also has a quality of dissatisfactoriness to it; by addressing the other, it can be processed, and the energy thus released may be applied to achieve desirable.
Notice the difference of elements within the structure: speaking ego is replaced with language itself, distressing phenomenon is seen as lacking, there is certainty in the capacity of the other to process this phenomenon and a lack of phantasmatic ideal about final achievement of complete fulfillment. This is so because presence of a desire already testifies for a certain freedom within the psychic apparatus. Namely, it is a freedom, that comes from knowing and accepting ubiquity of distress within phenomenal existence. Due to this freedom, the self to a certain extent is released, its grip on the mind is less tight in comparison to the level of the demand. Yet there is still a fantasy remaining, precisely as a conviction that there is a phenomenon impinging on the mind.
For a subject able to pursue a desire, its energies must be directed towards the right practice of discernment – vipassana – in order to recognise fundamental voidness of all phenomena. For a subject dwelling on the level of the demand, a desire must be brought into being via recognition of arresting quality of phenomenal existence – dukkha. The first noble truth lays therein.
Healing as a fantasy
The way state manages individuals with this condition is twofold:
- continuous medication, which normally consists of serotonin reuptake inhibitors and GABA degenerative enzymes inhibitors, that is, mood boosters and sedating agents;
- supported living and support in accessing community.
This is as good as it gets, for condition is unalterable, that is, there is no prospect of recovery, which diagnoses clearly reflect. A great deal of work is put to assist individuals with this condition, yet there is no meta-understanding regarding phenomenology of the issue as such. This amounts to working in the dark, managing symptoms, yet being oblivious to structural dynamics underlying the phenomenon.
There is not much value in searching for a root-cause, for the condition is often faced having progressed beyond reversable. Nevertheless, structural dynamics can be discerned and kept at the back of one’s mind, so that one could approach given individuals with clarity and compassion.
Lacanian psychoanalytic framework clearly identifies psychotic causality within attachment to imaginary sense of unity with primary object of enjoyment. As such, in psychotic subjectivity, there is a fusion with image and enjoyment of the first other, that is a primary mirroring other, who has given attunement and comfort to a nascent subject. Faithful to this imago of totality, psychotic subject functions at the level of the Imaginary, which is a psychic register formed via introjection of (m)other’s words and mannerisms of love, care, desire, and demand. This introjection forms ideal ego. Primary narcissism peculiar to this ego is what gives a subject a sense of blissful totality, completeness, and unity, which require no nuancing. One is perfect, as long as nothing intrudes upon imaginary identity procured via incarnating (m)other’s object of jouissance.
For one reason or another, and etiologies may vary here, a subject remains at this level of ideal attachment without allowing prohibition and law, which arise from the Symbolic register, to introduce to a subject that in reality, they are lacking. This is precisely the function of the Name-of-the-Father – the master signifier, which names lack, thereby severing imaginary bond of a nascent subject with a first other. For a psychotic subject this signifier is foreclosed: denied entering consciousness. As a result, a subject remains complete, without lack, endowed with imaginary sense of totality and aggrandisement. Such a subject disposes language and may manifest outstanding artistic skills of operating concepts, yet sooner or later, faced with pressure, which clearly imposes lack, a subject experiences a psychotic break.
Following from here, lack, which was rejected, returns from the outside in form of hallucinations and elementary phenomena. Attempt to process these intrusions from the ‘outside’ results in fermentation of delusions, which lead a subject to being disposed by language. Acoustic images – signifiers – Invade a subject’s consciousness, making one as if ‘possessed’ by language. Since rejection of lack still operates in favor of imaginary sense of totality, there is nothing else to be taken for real but the flood of language itself. This is chief characteristic of schizophrenia: the Symbolic is taken to be the Real. Namely, flood of signifiers, which pervades a subject, is endowed with enigmatic and prophetic qualities, pondered upon, basked in, made sense of, shaped and reshaped, thereby giving a subject enjoyment of meaning - jouissense.
Now, what a schizophrenic’s meaning-making fights against is precisely shared cognitive functioning of the (neurotic) Other. A schizophrenic doesn't function in accordance with commonly established paradigm, that is one of the Other. Schizophrenia is by nature an act of resistance to law and order of the Other. One resists paternal Symbolic of state and science in favor of maternal imaginary of one's sense of totality.
Both neurotics and psychotics have to face the Real of psychic suffering, yet it is processed differently. The Real is imaginarised by psychotics and symbolised by neurotics. As such, it is narrated, enacted, enjoyed, made into an artefact by a schizophrenic, whereas it is formalised, codified, legislated, put into ‘policy and procedure’, assigned roles and treatments to by the apparatus of state and science. Here is where ground of perceived conflict between capitalism and schizophrenia lays. An individual, whose mode of functioning is structured around the Imaginary, cannot fit in the consensus reality shared by individuals whose mode of functioning is structured by the Symbolic. Or else, those who reject lack are being managed by those who accept, yet repress, lack. One believes that one is omnipotent, another believes that one can be omnipotent, if only everything functions in accordance with the ‘grand design’.
Now to the ground of spiritual practice. It is clear that both psychotics and neurotics do not achieve penetrative insight into the nature of suffering. One legislates and institutionalises another simply because this one has power. From the standpoint of spiritual practice, there is no righteousness to both, since both have no direct experience of the Real. Psychotics enjoy enigmatic representations of the Real as per delusions, whereas neurotics enjoy the symptoms, which arise out of prohibition of psychotic enjoyment of meaning. Neurotics ‘get off’ on using master signifier via legislation and scientific scrutiny, which continuously affirms lack. Yet this does nothing to penetrate to the core of the issue and uproot the very structure of needing to enjoy. It simply keeps the system running. It is this causality of self-perpetuating wheel, which all subjects rotate within, that Deleuze and Guattari tried to elucidate in their work.
In order to approach uprooting this wheel of repetition, one needs another wheel – the Wheel of the Dhamma. As such, one needs right method, genuine teacher, and persistent practice. Yet this is hard, for one can be sure, that this other wheel will lead one away from cherished enjoyment towards release. The latter has no flavor but freedom, and only a few will be able to taste this flavorless flavor.
May all beings be free from psychic suffering!
- continuous medication, which normally consists of serotonin reuptake inhibitors and GABA degenerative enzymes inhibitors, that is, mood boosters and sedating agents;
- supported living and support in accessing community.
This is as good as it gets, for condition is unalterable, that is, there is no prospect of recovery, which diagnoses clearly reflect. A great deal of work is put to assist individuals with this condition, yet there is no meta-understanding regarding phenomenology of the issue as such. This amounts to working in the dark, managing symptoms, yet being oblivious to structural dynamics underlying the phenomenon.
There is not much value in searching for a root-cause, for the condition is often faced having progressed beyond reversable. Nevertheless, structural dynamics can be discerned and kept at the back of one’s mind, so that one could approach given individuals with clarity and compassion.
Lacanian psychoanalytic framework clearly identifies psychotic causality within attachment to imaginary sense of unity with primary object of enjoyment. As such, in psychotic subjectivity, there is a fusion with image and enjoyment of the first other, that is a primary mirroring other, who has given attunement and comfort to a nascent subject. Faithful to this imago of totality, psychotic subject functions at the level of the Imaginary, which is a psychic register formed via introjection of (m)other’s words and mannerisms of love, care, desire, and demand. This introjection forms ideal ego. Primary narcissism peculiar to this ego is what gives a subject a sense of blissful totality, completeness, and unity, which require no nuancing. One is perfect, as long as nothing intrudes upon imaginary identity procured via incarnating (m)other’s object of jouissance.
For one reason or another, and etiologies may vary here, a subject remains at this level of ideal attachment without allowing prohibition and law, which arise from the Symbolic register, to introduce to a subject that in reality, they are lacking. This is precisely the function of the Name-of-the-Father – the master signifier, which names lack, thereby severing imaginary bond of a nascent subject with a first other. For a psychotic subject this signifier is foreclosed: denied entering consciousness. As a result, a subject remains complete, without lack, endowed with imaginary sense of totality and aggrandisement. Such a subject disposes language and may manifest outstanding artistic skills of operating concepts, yet sooner or later, faced with pressure, which clearly imposes lack, a subject experiences a psychotic break.
Following from here, lack, which was rejected, returns from the outside in form of hallucinations and elementary phenomena. Attempt to process these intrusions from the ‘outside’ results in fermentation of delusions, which lead a subject to being disposed by language. Acoustic images – signifiers – Invade a subject’s consciousness, making one as if ‘possessed’ by language. Since rejection of lack still operates in favor of imaginary sense of totality, there is nothing else to be taken for real but the flood of language itself. This is chief characteristic of schizophrenia: the Symbolic is taken to be the Real. Namely, flood of signifiers, which pervades a subject, is endowed with enigmatic and prophetic qualities, pondered upon, basked in, made sense of, shaped and reshaped, thereby giving a subject enjoyment of meaning - jouissense.
Now, what a schizophrenic’s meaning-making fights against is precisely shared cognitive functioning of the (neurotic) Other. A schizophrenic doesn't function in accordance with commonly established paradigm, that is one of the Other. Schizophrenia is by nature an act of resistance to law and order of the Other. One resists paternal Symbolic of state and science in favor of maternal imaginary of one's sense of totality.
Both neurotics and psychotics have to face the Real of psychic suffering, yet it is processed differently. The Real is imaginarised by psychotics and symbolised by neurotics. As such, it is narrated, enacted, enjoyed, made into an artefact by a schizophrenic, whereas it is formalised, codified, legislated, put into ‘policy and procedure’, assigned roles and treatments to by the apparatus of state and science. Here is where ground of perceived conflict between capitalism and schizophrenia lays. An individual, whose mode of functioning is structured around the Imaginary, cannot fit in the consensus reality shared by individuals whose mode of functioning is structured by the Symbolic. Or else, those who reject lack are being managed by those who accept, yet repress, lack. One believes that one is omnipotent, another believes that one can be omnipotent, if only everything functions in accordance with the ‘grand design’.
Now to the ground of spiritual practice. It is clear that both psychotics and neurotics do not achieve penetrative insight into the nature of suffering. One legislates and institutionalises another simply because this one has power. From the standpoint of spiritual practice, there is no righteousness to both, since both have no direct experience of the Real. Psychotics enjoy enigmatic representations of the Real as per delusions, whereas neurotics enjoy the symptoms, which arise out of prohibition of psychotic enjoyment of meaning. Neurotics ‘get off’ on using master signifier via legislation and scientific scrutiny, which continuously affirms lack. Yet this does nothing to penetrate to the core of the issue and uproot the very structure of needing to enjoy. It simply keeps the system running. It is this causality of self-perpetuating wheel, which all subjects rotate within, that Deleuze and Guattari tried to elucidate in their work.
In order to approach uprooting this wheel of repetition, one needs another wheel – the Wheel of the Dhamma. As such, one needs right method, genuine teacher, and persistent practice. Yet this is hard, for one can be sure, that this other wheel will lead one away from cherished enjoyment towards release. The latter has no flavor but freedom, and only a few will be able to taste this flavorless flavor.
May all beings be free from psychic suffering!
On capitalism and schizophrenia
It’s been 50 years since Deleuze and Guattari have published the first volume of Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. The issues raised in this book are primarily about relationship between a state and an individual who does not acquiesce to state’s management. Covering wide range of topics, such as mental illness, art, market economy, psychoanalysis, philosophy, and more, this work operates a unique conceptual range aimed at clinically targeting aspects of age’s culture, which were ill-at-ease.
Half a century later it is safe to say that these aspects are still far from being resolved. The nature of treatment-resistant mental illness is one of such aspects.
Half a century later it is safe to say that these aspects are still far from being resolved. The nature of treatment-resistant mental illness is one of such aspects.
What I observe a great deal these days is that people get good at being persuasive, genuine and honest as a make-belief. They write and speak in a manner that is heart-felt and penetrative, as if sharing a story with an old friend.
Often this is seen in marketing and advertising fields.
Employment of skilled actors is not uncommon in order to advertise a product. People, who are seeking to sell their services, teach themselves to speak in this genuine manner so that their offer may appeal to potential customers.
There is nothing wrong with this kind of 'sincerity' at a marketplace.
However, and since a spiritual scene is also moving to a marketplace, when it comes to expounding teachings on the cultivation of the Spirit, this becomes a problem.
Often this is seen in marketing and advertising fields.
Employment of skilled actors is not uncommon in order to advertise a product. People, who are seeking to sell their services, teach themselves to speak in this genuine manner so that their offer may appeal to potential customers.
There is nothing wrong with this kind of 'sincerity' at a marketplace.
However, and since a spiritual scene is also moving to a marketplace, when it comes to expounding teachings on the cultivation of the Spirit, this becomes a problem.
It is not uncommon that people, having done a week-long meditation retreat, start opening their own retreat centers. It is also not uncommon to find that background of these people is within entrepreneurship or corporate culture. Yet, the skill of a salesman is not transferable to the skill of a teacher of the internal work.
So, when such a skill transfer is attempted, it is fair to say that it is ignorance that is speaking sincerely in such a self-made teacher.
Regardless goodness of intention, which people are motivated by in this case, their virtues (parami) are not necessarily mature to sustain the level of commitment, involvement and responsibility required of a teacher.
Not only a teacher must be a walking encyclopedia of the arts that one teaches, but also one must be able to impart this knowledge on others without any self-interest. Impartiality is a quality of a teacher with integrity.
Sincerity, which such a person speaks or writes with, is not to persuade or to attract. It is a quality, which emanates from their being, born of refinement of their nature, due to lengthy involvement with their way of practice. This sincerity doesn't seek return on the investment of energy. This is why it is easy to discern in those who have it because there is no agenda underlying it.
When truth is spoken it is just that. Yet, when advertisement is proclaimed, there is an expectation to act upon it.
Things get more complicated when marketing specialists are trying to replicate this very natural way that true sincerity is developed. Here one may encounter strategies of self-advertising, which are emphasising personal path of practice and integrity born of it. There is either
- a feeling of emptiness around these characters: 'ah, that's impressive, you've done a lot, you must be skilled in what you do; yet how come it feels just barren around you?' Or else, there is
- a feeling of enigmatic abundance and a secret, which this someone holds, and that I certainly have to have (buy from them). However, upon closer examination, this person's offer is just as barren and draining.
This is so because people who teach out of need for money inevitably drain their students. One must have abundance, a wealth of peace and wisdom to share, prior to expounding it. Indeed, it is better that the world has less teachers, but those with genuine integrity, than more teachers devoid of it.
May all beings take their time to develop sincerity!
So, when such a skill transfer is attempted, it is fair to say that it is ignorance that is speaking sincerely in such a self-made teacher.
Regardless goodness of intention, which people are motivated by in this case, their virtues (parami) are not necessarily mature to sustain the level of commitment, involvement and responsibility required of a teacher.
Not only a teacher must be a walking encyclopedia of the arts that one teaches, but also one must be able to impart this knowledge on others without any self-interest. Impartiality is a quality of a teacher with integrity.
Sincerity, which such a person speaks or writes with, is not to persuade or to attract. It is a quality, which emanates from their being, born of refinement of their nature, due to lengthy involvement with their way of practice. This sincerity doesn't seek return on the investment of energy. This is why it is easy to discern in those who have it because there is no agenda underlying it.
When truth is spoken it is just that. Yet, when advertisement is proclaimed, there is an expectation to act upon it.
Things get more complicated when marketing specialists are trying to replicate this very natural way that true sincerity is developed. Here one may encounter strategies of self-advertising, which are emphasising personal path of practice and integrity born of it. There is either
- a feeling of emptiness around these characters: 'ah, that's impressive, you've done a lot, you must be skilled in what you do; yet how come it feels just barren around you?' Or else, there is
- a feeling of enigmatic abundance and a secret, which this someone holds, and that I certainly have to have (buy from them). However, upon closer examination, this person's offer is just as barren and draining.
This is so because people who teach out of need for money inevitably drain their students. One must have abundance, a wealth of peace and wisdom to share, prior to expounding it. Indeed, it is better that the world has less teachers, but those with genuine integrity, than more teachers devoid of it.
May all beings take their time to develop sincerity!
Sincerity out of Ignorance
On empathy and oneness
Yet it is most effectively maintained in psychotic subjectivity. Note that psychotic structure does not necessarily imply psychopathology, whereas the latter can be developed in any structure. Remarkably, in a psychotic structure, the other of language is not present in the place of a guarantor that binds jouissance. That leaves a psychotic subject with three options:
- persisting in fusion with the (m)other's image and desire, which provide an imaginary totality and thereby bind jouissance;
- developing a unique solution for jouissance qua mobilising resources of language on one's own: sinthomatic creativity;
- withdrawing from (m)other's image and abandoning attempts to resolve jouissance on one's own: psychotic melancholia.
Now, phenomenon of 'empathy' as described above appears most explicitly within the first option. By clinging to image and desire of an other, a subject incarnates that other in everyone, whom they open themselves towards. Since separation has not been installed qua linguistic alienation, phenomena of other's being are experienced as one's own.
Here one can see how such ideas as 'we are all one' can be embodied and directly experienced on the basis of intersubjectivity. All it takes is non-separation and (a bit of) intimacy.
However, from the perspective of the Path, such approach does not render itself successful, since the root of suffering - clinging - is not being abandoned by the one experiencing this kind of 'empathy'. Clinging to (m)other's image and desire, replacing it with endless sinthomatic creativity (a form of clinging qua becoming) or clinging to no-image and no-desire (a form of craving for non-existence) are all variations on 'samudaya' - cause of suffering.
The above leaves no hope for overcoming suffering of identification for a psychotic subject. Indeed, there isn't any. There doesn't have to be any either. That is so, and many Lacanians would not agree with me here, because a subjective structure can be changed. The argument is that once set in, a subjective structure would require a whole new way of 'passing through the Other' in order to reform. Yet I am not looking at conventional ways of subject-formation. I mean a very specific universal way of ending all subjectivity, that is, the Path of the Buddha. Undoubtedly, it requires an active agency of a subject's choice to practice, yet what other choices are there?
May all beings be free from clinging!
- persisting in fusion with the (m)other's image and desire, which provide an imaginary totality and thereby bind jouissance;
- developing a unique solution for jouissance qua mobilising resources of language on one's own: sinthomatic creativity;
- withdrawing from (m)other's image and abandoning attempts to resolve jouissance on one's own: psychotic melancholia.
Now, phenomenon of 'empathy' as described above appears most explicitly within the first option. By clinging to image and desire of an other, a subject incarnates that other in everyone, whom they open themselves towards. Since separation has not been installed qua linguistic alienation, phenomena of other's being are experienced as one's own.
Here one can see how such ideas as 'we are all one' can be embodied and directly experienced on the basis of intersubjectivity. All it takes is non-separation and (a bit of) intimacy.
However, from the perspective of the Path, such approach does not render itself successful, since the root of suffering - clinging - is not being abandoned by the one experiencing this kind of 'empathy'. Clinging to (m)other's image and desire, replacing it with endless sinthomatic creativity (a form of clinging qua becoming) or clinging to no-image and no-desire (a form of craving for non-existence) are all variations on 'samudaya' - cause of suffering.
The above leaves no hope for overcoming suffering of identification for a psychotic subject. Indeed, there isn't any. There doesn't have to be any either. That is so, and many Lacanians would not agree with me here, because a subjective structure can be changed. The argument is that once set in, a subjective structure would require a whole new way of 'passing through the Other' in order to reform. Yet I am not looking at conventional ways of subject-formation. I mean a very specific universal way of ending all subjectivity, that is, the Path of the Buddha. Undoubtedly, it requires an active agency of a subject's choice to practice, yet what other choices are there?
May all beings be free from clinging!
There is a case whereby, when exposed to suffering of others, one takes it to heart, laments it, becomes distraught, loses anchor. It has been prevalent in lately emerged discourse of 'empaths'. That is, an identity, which sensitive individuals take upon to explain their anguish in response to pain of others. Various theories can explicate this phenomenon.
In psychoanalytic key, co-suffering is due to non-separation. Namely, the fusion with the (m)other has not been dialectised qua alienation, or distancing, through language. In such a case, a subject remains affixed to (m)other's desire and, consequentially, experiences that other's pain as one's own. A degree of non-separation is an attribute of all subjectivities.
In psychoanalytic key, co-suffering is due to non-separation. Namely, the fusion with the (m)other has not been dialectised qua alienation, or distancing, through language. In such a case, a subject remains affixed to (m)other's desire and, consequentially, experiences that other's pain as one's own. A degree of non-separation is an attribute of all subjectivities.
On the value of dreams 'Of course, that visual perception, in the social construction of reality, functions differently from dreams because it is taking place at the front end rather than in the dark back cave of the mind. But since front and back are in a Moebius strip, what is received up front is interpreted at the back end, and what is a linguistic code at the back end is transformed into images at the front end. In dreams, both front (perception) and back (representation) are taking place at the back end of the mind/brain. Images in visual perception are the objective embodiment of linguistic signifiers (like algorithms behind computer images), while images in dreams and fantasies defend against and seek relief from the very same signifiers' -Raul Moncayo, from 'The Practice of Lacanian Psychoanalysis’. It is crucial to understand that the ‘back’, namely the unconscious, is structured like a language. What is the unconscious made of? Signifiers, which have been repressed, disavowed, or rejected. These signifiers form associative links and constitute a ‘dark web’ much like dodgy areas of the internet. And just like with the dark areas of the internet, where one can find child pornography, and buy drugs or weapons, affectivity, which pertains to those actions, is cut off from signifying operations that are supporting them. As such, those involved in production and operation are temporarily numbed from kammic results of their actions. In the same way, the operation of unconscious signifiers is cut off from psychophysical affectivity. |
Spontaneous visual perceptions in the waking and liminal states as well as dreams are then the areas where this affectivity surfaces and seeks processing.
In some cases, a vision or a dream preclude the fulfillment of affective formations, in other cases, they are the fulfillment itself. In the latter case, a bodily phenomenon accompanies a vision or dream, be it a flash of heat or a chill, perspiration or shivering, shedding a tear or blooming in a smile. In many ways, some of which are less hygienically pleasing than others, affectivity, which has been cut off from the signifiers pushed into the unconscious, returns and, thereby, the reality is regained by a subject. This is a wholesome aspect of dreams and visions.
The unwholesome aspect is when, due to craving, a subject, having experienced a vision or a dream, ponders upon it, makes meaning out of it, acts based on that meaning, yet never experiences a return of affectivity in the body. In this case, one prevents the flow of information from the unconscious into the conscious and fortifies the intrapsychic division.
Meaning-making is imaginary process par excellence. It arises on the frontier between the Imaginary and the Symbolic, whereby a subject resists lack embedded in the Symbolic, and tries to render the Real by one’s own egoic means, which are imaginarisation, magical thinking, and narcissistic creativity. All these means are aimed at sustaining the imaginary identity, which a subject has grasped onto in the other. A hallmark of this process is a degree of disembodiment with regard to aspects of reality that challenge imaginary identity. In terms of the Dhamma, these are pain, stress, grief, and despair connected to bodily existence: the inevitability of sickness, disintegration, and perishing of this body along with a persona, embodied in it. As such, the imaginary process of meaning-making is an act of resistance to change.
When the above is understood, it is very clear to discern the value of dreams, which can be found at the very nucleus of the dream-formation. At a certain stage of interpretation, as discovered in the analysis, dream images cease to produce meaning. This is whereby a subject has exhausted the potential of the Imaginary and entered upon the Real. From here, it is shocking, terrifying and unbearable, or.. with the right gnosis and the right practice, one can learn how to abide skilfully in the Real. The latter involves the Dhamma, understanding the body and the energy, study of the nature of mental defilements, and refinement of the faculty of attention.
Indeed, dreams are the ‘royal road to the unconscious’, yet the unconscious is only a point of entry.
May all beings be well!
The unwholesome aspect is when, due to craving, a subject, having experienced a vision or a dream, ponders upon it, makes meaning out of it, acts based on that meaning, yet never experiences a return of affectivity in the body. In this case, one prevents the flow of information from the unconscious into the conscious and fortifies the intrapsychic division.
Meaning-making is imaginary process par excellence. It arises on the frontier between the Imaginary and the Symbolic, whereby a subject resists lack embedded in the Symbolic, and tries to render the Real by one’s own egoic means, which are imaginarisation, magical thinking, and narcissistic creativity. All these means are aimed at sustaining the imaginary identity, which a subject has grasped onto in the other. A hallmark of this process is a degree of disembodiment with regard to aspects of reality that challenge imaginary identity. In terms of the Dhamma, these are pain, stress, grief, and despair connected to bodily existence: the inevitability of sickness, disintegration, and perishing of this body along with a persona, embodied in it. As such, the imaginary process of meaning-making is an act of resistance to change.
When the above is understood, it is very clear to discern the value of dreams, which can be found at the very nucleus of the dream-formation. At a certain stage of interpretation, as discovered in the analysis, dream images cease to produce meaning. This is whereby a subject has exhausted the potential of the Imaginary and entered upon the Real. From here, it is shocking, terrifying and unbearable, or.. with the right gnosis and the right practice, one can learn how to abide skilfully in the Real. The latter involves the Dhamma, understanding the body and the energy, study of the nature of mental defilements, and refinement of the faculty of attention.
Indeed, dreams are the ‘royal road to the unconscious’, yet the unconscious is only a point of entry.
May all beings be well!
There is a structural discord, intimacy, and/or lack of rapport between the two halves of truth. Formulated truth will always have an element of fiction that does violence to and conceals the other half of truth that remains unformulated within the Real. For this same reason, one cannot find the other half of the soul in the love object but only in the empty half-side of the heart, that love as a signifier represents.
- Raul Moncayo, The Practice of Lacanian Psychoanalysis
Not without the (unconscious) reason we seek love.
On the level of the Imaginary, there is no other love but the narcissistic adoring one’s own sameness in the other. On the level of the Symbolic, it is a set of qualities, found in the other, which is deemed agreeable and, therefore, loved – an ego ideal nuanced by education.
- Raul Moncayo, The Practice of Lacanian Psychoanalysis
Not without the (unconscious) reason we seek love.
On the level of the Imaginary, there is no other love but the narcissistic adoring one’s own sameness in the other. On the level of the Symbolic, it is a set of qualities, found in the other, which is deemed agreeable and, therefore, loved – an ego ideal nuanced by education.
On the level of the Real, there is non-knowing, acceptance of lack, subsuming the incomprehensible into ‘just this’ and abandoning idealism. From here, in this love in the Real, one has the proximity of chance for unconditional benevolence towards otherness.
Not only there is love non-relying on imaginary-symbolic conditions, but also expansive openness into depersonalising ‘savoir’ or knowledge devoid of discriminating judgmental selectiveness. It is here that genuine ‘listening’ is possible, but the price to pay is the abandonment of the attachment to the idealised love object.
The truth in the Real, which, as Moncayo denotes, which doesn’t have a rapport with theory, that is, the ‘thingness’ of phenomena put into structuration via language, loses its contingent, immediately piercing beauty. Paradoxically, it can be re-found in the non-sensical dimension of language, a pure signifier stripped of meaning, which quite unequivocally points to that ‘empty half-side of the heart’ that no ideal partner can fill.
The Real love is thus found in the subjectification of the cause of one’s own desire: not in the love of oneself as ego, but in the subjective destitution, which dismantles the repetition of self-story and penetrates to the drive unadorned by the paraphernalia of personality, symptoms, creeds or systems of practice. Desire thus subjectivised no longer requires the crutches of the other’s demand to flow. One no longer needs an injunction or an approval of the other, no longer needs to rebel against the other’s desire, or settle the score with traumatic other’s jouissance.
Love’s blessing is that one can just be, fulfilled and unlimited, whilst being able to give to the other that, which one doesn’t have.
Not only there is love non-relying on imaginary-symbolic conditions, but also expansive openness into depersonalising ‘savoir’ or knowledge devoid of discriminating judgmental selectiveness. It is here that genuine ‘listening’ is possible, but the price to pay is the abandonment of the attachment to the idealised love object.
The truth in the Real, which, as Moncayo denotes, which doesn’t have a rapport with theory, that is, the ‘thingness’ of phenomena put into structuration via language, loses its contingent, immediately piercing beauty. Paradoxically, it can be re-found in the non-sensical dimension of language, a pure signifier stripped of meaning, which quite unequivocally points to that ‘empty half-side of the heart’ that no ideal partner can fill.
The Real love is thus found in the subjectification of the cause of one’s own desire: not in the love of oneself as ego, but in the subjective destitution, which dismantles the repetition of self-story and penetrates to the drive unadorned by the paraphernalia of personality, symptoms, creeds or systems of practice. Desire thus subjectivised no longer requires the crutches of the other’s demand to flow. One no longer needs an injunction or an approval of the other, no longer needs to rebel against the other’s desire, or settle the score with traumatic other’s jouissance.
Love’s blessing is that one can just be, fulfilled and unlimited, whilst being able to give to the other that, which one doesn’t have.
The Real (of) love
Demand for healing quite often arises out of the loss of a sense of wholeness.
Under a sense of wholeness, one operates as one unit. Movements are immediate and require not much in the way of awareness to perform. The body is experienced as pleasant, the mind is not inclined to question. Ontologically, wholeness stems from jubilant identification with the other's image and desire during the mirror stage. Motor control, unification of disparate somatic intensities, and a sense of mastery arise therefrom. Incidentally, this image of oneself as complete is foundational to the ego.
It is when this self-image is shattered, that a need for healing arises, which in this case can be interpreted as a need to mend the broken wholeness. Don't some therapies portray healing as returning to wholeness?
Under a sense of wholeness, one operates as one unit. Movements are immediate and require not much in the way of awareness to perform. The body is experienced as pleasant, the mind is not inclined to question. Ontologically, wholeness stems from jubilant identification with the other's image and desire during the mirror stage. Motor control, unification of disparate somatic intensities, and a sense of mastery arise therefrom. Incidentally, this image of oneself as complete is foundational to the ego.
It is when this self-image is shattered, that a need for healing arises, which in this case can be interpreted as a need to mend the broken wholeness. Don't some therapies portray healing as returning to wholeness?
This is where the market for psychosomatic, holistic, integrative therapeutic modalities operates. The sense of totality sells.
Obviously, if we take into account psychic causality, the shattering of egoic wholeness is inevitable, whereas its reparation is regressive. As such, trying to restore wholeness by clever, lengthy, and costly therapeutic work, one only exercises rolling back onto a state of dependency on the other's image and desire. Evidently, this is a state of well-cushioned non-freedom.
The ego is only needed in formative years to provide the basis for personality, which is something of a sticky plaster to cover up initial helplessness, lack of skill in governing one's mind, and incapacity to face up to dukkha of bodily fragmentation. Having acquired this pastiche of stability, one is fit for the basics of survival. Yet the ego is no fit for genuine happiness.
The view that sickness of the body can be overcome by living up to one's utmost potential or by following one's dreams is based on the delusion of wholeness. Whereas there is a basis for the stagnation of Qi in the non-fulfillment of the soul's aspirations, there may also be a misunderstanding as to what those aspirations are. Quite often this is due to the original sense of egoic totality by ways of attachment intervening with the movement of the soul towards the Spirit. Trying to cushion those attachments via fusion-based therapies is the erroneous path.
Here is what I see as fusion-based therapy: any modality, which doesn't discern feelings, perceptions, mental formations, consciousness, and body as disjointed. In other words, it is any modality, which sees a human subject as a whole. I'm quite aware that this definition flies in the face of the majority of 'psy'-world with exception of psychoanalysis in Lacanian key. This is normal. Fusion is predicated on the ground-zero level of delusion pertaining to initial mirror identification with the other. It is not easy to break through. Yet trying to sustain it through therapeutic work is sustaining the delusion of wholeness, feeding it, transforming it. In short, this is what Buddhist tradition calls 'craving for becoming' (Pali, bhava tanha).
The correct practice is to break down the constituents of this 'name and form' (Pali, nama rupa), which are feelings, perceptions, mental formations, consciousness, and body by seeing them as not containing any self and not entwined with each other. The determinism by which feelings, perceptions, and mental formations cause a change in the body is grounded in the misapprehension of this body as self by consciousness.
This misapprehension is just another mental formation, by way of which one takes ownership of the body as self. This is what allows us to enjoy the body, to find the story of our becoming exciting and pleasurable, and what enables us to want to fulfill our dreams making the experience of this body ever more fascinating. This is why we delight in causing the becoming of others, that is, producing children because this gives us new bodies to appropriate and dedicate our dreams to, thus enacting the great spectacle of Samsara beyond death. This is all good, until we face destruction, breaking down of the aggregates, loss of loved ones, and inevitable separation from 'all that is mine, beloved and pleasing'. Yet even then many of us still don't wake up to the ubiquity of dukkha within this striving for life.
When seen as separate from each other, these aggregates (Pali, khanda) no longer enter becoming. The process of becoming stops completely for someone who sees the impersonality, separateness, transiency, and dissatisfactoriness of the aggregates on a continuous basis.
The Buddha concluded his first-ever sermon with just these words:
'My release is unshakable.
This is my last birth.
There won't be any further becoming'
As we can see, therapeutic modalities oriented towards wholeness are the exact opposite of the path of transcendence, which is based on wise discrimination aimed at unsettling determinism of 'becoming someone'. This is why such therapies will never be complementary to spiritual practice. What is helpful for spiritual practice is brutal scrutiny in regard to fantasies, which motivate our striving for fulfillment. Within the western milieu, only Lacanian psychoanalytic praxis has a capacity for such depth of discernment, yet even that is only complementary.
May all beings be free from delusion!
Obviously, if we take into account psychic causality, the shattering of egoic wholeness is inevitable, whereas its reparation is regressive. As such, trying to restore wholeness by clever, lengthy, and costly therapeutic work, one only exercises rolling back onto a state of dependency on the other's image and desire. Evidently, this is a state of well-cushioned non-freedom.
The ego is only needed in formative years to provide the basis for personality, which is something of a sticky plaster to cover up initial helplessness, lack of skill in governing one's mind, and incapacity to face up to dukkha of bodily fragmentation. Having acquired this pastiche of stability, one is fit for the basics of survival. Yet the ego is no fit for genuine happiness.
The view that sickness of the body can be overcome by living up to one's utmost potential or by following one's dreams is based on the delusion of wholeness. Whereas there is a basis for the stagnation of Qi in the non-fulfillment of the soul's aspirations, there may also be a misunderstanding as to what those aspirations are. Quite often this is due to the original sense of egoic totality by ways of attachment intervening with the movement of the soul towards the Spirit. Trying to cushion those attachments via fusion-based therapies is the erroneous path.
Here is what I see as fusion-based therapy: any modality, which doesn't discern feelings, perceptions, mental formations, consciousness, and body as disjointed. In other words, it is any modality, which sees a human subject as a whole. I'm quite aware that this definition flies in the face of the majority of 'psy'-world with exception of psychoanalysis in Lacanian key. This is normal. Fusion is predicated on the ground-zero level of delusion pertaining to initial mirror identification with the other. It is not easy to break through. Yet trying to sustain it through therapeutic work is sustaining the delusion of wholeness, feeding it, transforming it. In short, this is what Buddhist tradition calls 'craving for becoming' (Pali, bhava tanha).
The correct practice is to break down the constituents of this 'name and form' (Pali, nama rupa), which are feelings, perceptions, mental formations, consciousness, and body by seeing them as not containing any self and not entwined with each other. The determinism by which feelings, perceptions, and mental formations cause a change in the body is grounded in the misapprehension of this body as self by consciousness.
This misapprehension is just another mental formation, by way of which one takes ownership of the body as self. This is what allows us to enjoy the body, to find the story of our becoming exciting and pleasurable, and what enables us to want to fulfill our dreams making the experience of this body ever more fascinating. This is why we delight in causing the becoming of others, that is, producing children because this gives us new bodies to appropriate and dedicate our dreams to, thus enacting the great spectacle of Samsara beyond death. This is all good, until we face destruction, breaking down of the aggregates, loss of loved ones, and inevitable separation from 'all that is mine, beloved and pleasing'. Yet even then many of us still don't wake up to the ubiquity of dukkha within this striving for life.
When seen as separate from each other, these aggregates (Pali, khanda) no longer enter becoming. The process of becoming stops completely for someone who sees the impersonality, separateness, transiency, and dissatisfactoriness of the aggregates on a continuous basis.
The Buddha concluded his first-ever sermon with just these words:
'My release is unshakable.
This is my last birth.
There won't be any further becoming'
As we can see, therapeutic modalities oriented towards wholeness are the exact opposite of the path of transcendence, which is based on wise discrimination aimed at unsettling determinism of 'becoming someone'. This is why such therapies will never be complementary to spiritual practice. What is helpful for spiritual practice is brutal scrutiny in regard to fantasies, which motivate our striving for fulfillment. Within the western milieu, only Lacanian psychoanalytic praxis has a capacity for such depth of discernment, yet even that is only complementary.
May all beings be free from delusion!
On fusion-type therapeutic modalities
On Mental Health
From this standpoint, it has little to no avail to try and improve mental health of ‘me’ – the entire edifice is a cause of mental illness. Instead, one works at uprooting causes of stress by means of virtue, samadhi and discerning wisdom.
Virtue: since there is nothing much to be done with ‘myself’ in a way of healing, we can at least try to cause no hurt, guilt and remorse, so that abiding in this acquired self is, if not pleasant, could at least be bearable. For this, we practice abstinence from killing, stealing, committing sexual misconduct, lying, and consuming intoxicants.
Samadhi: the mind, free from remorse, bearable to abide in, makes it possible to simply stay with oneself, thus making one into an object which awareness can be absorbed into. Progressively unifying in concentration with subsequent cessation of both mental states and the body, the mind gains energy born of stillness to contemplate the very predicament of deluded self-identification.
Discerning wisdom: one brings unified mind’s awareness onto mental-physical aggregates as objects for contemplation. One discerns between body, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and sense consciousness as separate ‘heaps’ (Pali, khandha), thus uprooting tendency of the ego to pile them together as intricate ‘self’. Seeing clearly that feelings, even though arising depending on the body, are not in the body, but in the mind, one develops endurance based on wisdom, which is quite different from endurance based on physical prowess. Having thus separated phenomena via discernment, one contemplates them on the nature of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and selflessness as per vipassana, thereby developing clear seeing, knowing and, therefore, ability to let go of phenomena.
The result of this practice is release (Pali, vimutti) – non-identification, disentanglement, unbinding from the involvement with mental-physical phenomena, which has been caused by deluded misrecognition of them as ‘self’.
Needless to say that results of this practice transcend commonsensical category of being mentally healthy and approach the supramundane category of being awake.
May all beings find release!
Virtue: since there is nothing much to be done with ‘myself’ in a way of healing, we can at least try to cause no hurt, guilt and remorse, so that abiding in this acquired self is, if not pleasant, could at least be bearable. For this, we practice abstinence from killing, stealing, committing sexual misconduct, lying, and consuming intoxicants.
Samadhi: the mind, free from remorse, bearable to abide in, makes it possible to simply stay with oneself, thus making one into an object which awareness can be absorbed into. Progressively unifying in concentration with subsequent cessation of both mental states and the body, the mind gains energy born of stillness to contemplate the very predicament of deluded self-identification.
Discerning wisdom: one brings unified mind’s awareness onto mental-physical aggregates as objects for contemplation. One discerns between body, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and sense consciousness as separate ‘heaps’ (Pali, khandha), thus uprooting tendency of the ego to pile them together as intricate ‘self’. Seeing clearly that feelings, even though arising depending on the body, are not in the body, but in the mind, one develops endurance based on wisdom, which is quite different from endurance based on physical prowess. Having thus separated phenomena via discernment, one contemplates them on the nature of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and selflessness as per vipassana, thereby developing clear seeing, knowing and, therefore, ability to let go of phenomena.
The result of this practice is release (Pali, vimutti) – non-identification, disentanglement, unbinding from the involvement with mental-physical phenomena, which has been caused by deluded misrecognition of them as ‘self’.
Needless to say that results of this practice transcend commonsensical category of being mentally healthy and approach the supramundane category of being awake.
May all beings find release!
There is a commonsensical category of ‘mental health’, which generally refers to being happy with oneself, free from anxiety, internal conflict, agitation, despair, or any other dissonant mental states that are stressful. The idea is that mental health needs to be achieved and maintained much like physical health. For the latter one sees a GP, and for the former one sees a specialist from the field of ‘psy’-modalities. This is the way the world rolls.
Yet for a practitioner on the path of cultivation the approach to mental health is different.
It comes as no surprise that dukkha (stress) of mind and body is ubiquitous. Dealing with dukkha effectively implies uprooting its causes, which are deluded identification with body and mind as self, righteously angry need to protect and sustain this identification, and rapaciously greedy need to make it even better, more whole, close to perfection. The ‘me’ and ‘mine’ thus habitually sustained via delusion are causes of dukkha.
Yet for a practitioner on the path of cultivation the approach to mental health is different.
It comes as no surprise that dukkha (stress) of mind and body is ubiquitous. Dealing with dukkha effectively implies uprooting its causes, which are deluded identification with body and mind as self, righteously angry need to protect and sustain this identification, and rapaciously greedy need to make it even better, more whole, close to perfection. The ‘me’ and ‘mine’ thus habitually sustained via delusion are causes of dukkha.
Enjoyment of Meaning The ego functions as a depository of meaning. The story, which pertains to the self, is invested with libido, making disparate facts and events meaningful. That meaning, in turn, strengthens a sense of ‘being someone’. Based on self-perception thus formed, one discriminates between various phenomena. This persistent self-perception is a fulcrum of subjectivity, a core of someone’s ‘world’. Yet, if looked at without bias, it is merely a formation amongst other formations of the mind. Known as ‘Sakkāya Diṭṭhi’ or ‘self-identity view’, it is observed and abandoned in the framework of the third foundation of mindfulness – mental formation. However, for someone uninstructed in the way of practice, there won’t be a consciously directed effort at abandoning self-referentiality, which results in a normal worldly process of building, rebuilding, and reinforcing a sense of acquired self. In the way of the world, the ego is enjoyed to such an extent that one is fascinated with one’s own story, in love with oneself. |
Yet the other side of this is being a spider caught in one’s own web of affectivity because everything pleasing soon shows its arresting quality as per the principle of jouissance. Enjoying oneself and being steeped in the drudgery of repetition of self-story are two sides of the same coin.
In order to overcome the drudgery, one is forced to uncover new meanings, nuances, and colours of existing self-story, write new stories, and re-shuffle components of the story such that a new angle to perceive its meaning can be acquired.
Artistic rendering of the self’s experience pertaining to repetition, traumatisation, aphanisis (disappearance), and epiphany is considered a highly regarded, skilful way of processing psychopathological symptoms, which are inseparable from ‘being someone’. Yet all of this constitutes ‘the world’ and transpires in Samsara.
For those who see no refuge in the world, the sinthomatic rendering of one’s attachment to a sense of self and the degree of enjoyment it grants is no longer acceptable. It has been seen that such a refuge is not secure. Ever-collapsing nature of the drama of repetition, rediscovery, and rewriting has been seen as a tedious and wearisome ordeal. Having seen that, one practices abandoning involvement with self-story, which equals renunciation of ‘enjoymeant’ (jouissense): giving up on deriving cathartic pleasure out of meaning, which has to do with oneself.
No longer enchanted with meaning, one needs not have anger towards that, which opposes one’s sense of self. Subsequently, veils of delusion of ‘being someone’ dissolve since no new fuel reinforces the fires of self-identity. Thus unequivocally, one tends towards release.
Artistic rendering of the self’s experience pertaining to repetition, traumatisation, aphanisis (disappearance), and epiphany is considered a highly regarded, skilful way of processing psychopathological symptoms, which are inseparable from ‘being someone’. Yet all of this constitutes ‘the world’ and transpires in Samsara.
For those who see no refuge in the world, the sinthomatic rendering of one’s attachment to a sense of self and the degree of enjoyment it grants is no longer acceptable. It has been seen that such a refuge is not secure. Ever-collapsing nature of the drama of repetition, rediscovery, and rewriting has been seen as a tedious and wearisome ordeal. Having seen that, one practices abandoning involvement with self-story, which equals renunciation of ‘enjoymeant’ (jouissense): giving up on deriving cathartic pleasure out of meaning, which has to do with oneself.
No longer enchanted with meaning, one needs not have anger towards that, which opposes one’s sense of self. Subsequently, veils of delusion of ‘being someone’ dissolve since no new fuel reinforces the fires of self-identity. Thus unequivocally, one tends towards release.
Within spiritual cultivation circles, there are a lot of conversations about masters, mastery, and attainment. It is helpful to break down these terms and ascertain the root causes of the search after mastery.
To begin with, it is structurally predetermined for neurotic subjects to seek mastery in the other. Thanks to the functioning of S1 – the key master signifier within neurotics’ psyche – the entire ‘reality’ is measured against a rigidly established standard. A particular system of signification or a defined mode of desiring are such standards for obsessive and hysteric neurotics, respectively.
A neurotic subject sees oneself as lacking with respect to embodying qualities of a given system or a desiring modality. The fundamental fantasy for a neurotic is thus, ‘as soon as I fulfil demands of a system/desire, which the other has bestowed upon me, all will be well’.
To begin with, it is structurally predetermined for neurotic subjects to seek mastery in the other. Thanks to the functioning of S1 – the key master signifier within neurotics’ psyche – the entire ‘reality’ is measured against a rigidly established standard. A particular system of signification or a defined mode of desiring are such standards for obsessive and hysteric neurotics, respectively.
A neurotic subject sees oneself as lacking with respect to embodying qualities of a given system or a desiring modality. The fundamental fantasy for a neurotic is thus, ‘as soon as I fulfil demands of a system/desire, which the other has bestowed upon me, all will be well’.
Consequentially, neurotics fantasise absence of lack in those certain others who are held to perfectly embody the sought qualities. The other, who is thus installed in the position of the master, incarnates S1, which vouchsafes the consistency of a neurotic’s psychic reality. It is not hard to see how the said ‘master’ is a product of a subject’s fantasy. Yet it is a mistake to underestimate stabilising properties of S1. It is precisely the instalment of the latter that differentiates neurotics from perverted, psychotic, and autistic subjects.
For someone with a perverted structure, the situation is radically opposite: such a subject does not acknowledge the lack in oneself yet all too clearly sees it in the other. A perverted subject incarnates the fullness of a libidinal being by refusing to be subjected to the ‘castrating’ quality of the master signifier. As such, ‘no’ and ‘name’ of the father have been disavowed by this subject, subsequently disqualifying any systems of signification or modes of desiring that come from the Other as potent at bringing about the answer to primordial discord at the level of the drive. In this respect, a perverted subject has realised that there is ‘no Other of the Other’, that is, there is no final and perfect method to do away with the inherent suffering of life.
Moreover, there is no final ‘master’ that can deliver such a method. This leaves a perverted subject vis a vis engulfing pressure of the drive, which needs to be remedied. Since reliance on a ‘normal’ neurotic way of succumbing to demands of culturally and religiously provided S1 is absent, a perverted subject forges their own ‘law’. Such a ‘law’ may regulate a subject’s libidinal pressure well. Yet, it won’t be the law at the level of the Dhamma for apparent reasons of being a fabrication of an unenlightened mind. The critical consequence of this development is that a perverted subject who has self-forged a ‘mastery’ of the drive emits an aura of fulfilment for neurotic subjects. Indeed, a pervert incarnates precisely that which neurotics seek: absence of lack. For a neurotic, a pervert’s ‘law’ guarantees unbounded enjoyment.
Based on this structural compatibility, it is not hard to see how certain people may find themselves in the position of mastery, surrounded by followers, without having developed real skills leading to the attainment of the fruits of cultivation.
One would ask how to differentiate between the true master and the one exercising a perverted ‘law’. The answer is far from simple. In order to be able to discern the true attainment, one (provided that one is a neurotic) first of all has to work through the fundamental fantasy, which prevents one from seeing the lack in the other. Why do we assume that certain others are perfect? Why do we think that certain others have sorted it all out and we are somehow deficient? This assumption stems from neurotics’ compulsion to succumb to the other’s demands. The need for a certain ‘other’ to handle us a lineage, a method, rites of passage and a key to suffering is predicated on the neurotic structure built around S1. As long as this given S1 is not dialectised, such that its rigidity is dissolved, one will be hopping from one ‘master’ to another, switching from one method to another, perhaps mixing methods to fulfil the demands of S1 ‘holistically’. Yet, one will not be able to face the inherent presence of suffering directly.
The capacity to genuinely see the lack in the other without becoming blind to the lack in oneself thus arises through disillusionment accompanied by a sense of urgency (Pali, samvega). At this stage, one starts to see the Dhamma for oneself and deal with dukkha head-on, learning in the Real. Generally, this comes as a crisis of one’s personality, a collapse of one’s paradigm of perception, and a characteristic shattering of subjective reality. Having entered and gone through this process without adopting another S1 to quilt the proliferating dismay in one’s psyche, but instead relying on the Dhamma for self-management, which involves regulating body, energy, and mental qualities, one re-emerges with self-sufficiency that no longer requires a master to lead one.
From this position only can one truly recognise another being who has gone through the fires of purification. Before that, one only sees one’s ideals incarnate in someone else. Does it imply that it takes self-mastery to know the mastery in the other? I’d say so.
For someone with a perverted structure, the situation is radically opposite: such a subject does not acknowledge the lack in oneself yet all too clearly sees it in the other. A perverted subject incarnates the fullness of a libidinal being by refusing to be subjected to the ‘castrating’ quality of the master signifier. As such, ‘no’ and ‘name’ of the father have been disavowed by this subject, subsequently disqualifying any systems of signification or modes of desiring that come from the Other as potent at bringing about the answer to primordial discord at the level of the drive. In this respect, a perverted subject has realised that there is ‘no Other of the Other’, that is, there is no final and perfect method to do away with the inherent suffering of life.
Moreover, there is no final ‘master’ that can deliver such a method. This leaves a perverted subject vis a vis engulfing pressure of the drive, which needs to be remedied. Since reliance on a ‘normal’ neurotic way of succumbing to demands of culturally and religiously provided S1 is absent, a perverted subject forges their own ‘law’. Such a ‘law’ may regulate a subject’s libidinal pressure well. Yet, it won’t be the law at the level of the Dhamma for apparent reasons of being a fabrication of an unenlightened mind. The critical consequence of this development is that a perverted subject who has self-forged a ‘mastery’ of the drive emits an aura of fulfilment for neurotic subjects. Indeed, a pervert incarnates precisely that which neurotics seek: absence of lack. For a neurotic, a pervert’s ‘law’ guarantees unbounded enjoyment.
Based on this structural compatibility, it is not hard to see how certain people may find themselves in the position of mastery, surrounded by followers, without having developed real skills leading to the attainment of the fruits of cultivation.
One would ask how to differentiate between the true master and the one exercising a perverted ‘law’. The answer is far from simple. In order to be able to discern the true attainment, one (provided that one is a neurotic) first of all has to work through the fundamental fantasy, which prevents one from seeing the lack in the other. Why do we assume that certain others are perfect? Why do we think that certain others have sorted it all out and we are somehow deficient? This assumption stems from neurotics’ compulsion to succumb to the other’s demands. The need for a certain ‘other’ to handle us a lineage, a method, rites of passage and a key to suffering is predicated on the neurotic structure built around S1. As long as this given S1 is not dialectised, such that its rigidity is dissolved, one will be hopping from one ‘master’ to another, switching from one method to another, perhaps mixing methods to fulfil the demands of S1 ‘holistically’. Yet, one will not be able to face the inherent presence of suffering directly.
The capacity to genuinely see the lack in the other without becoming blind to the lack in oneself thus arises through disillusionment accompanied by a sense of urgency (Pali, samvega). At this stage, one starts to see the Dhamma for oneself and deal with dukkha head-on, learning in the Real. Generally, this comes as a crisis of one’s personality, a collapse of one’s paradigm of perception, and a characteristic shattering of subjective reality. Having entered and gone through this process without adopting another S1 to quilt the proliferating dismay in one’s psyche, but instead relying on the Dhamma for self-management, which involves regulating body, energy, and mental qualities, one re-emerges with self-sufficiency that no longer requires a master to lead one.
From this position only can one truly recognise another being who has gone through the fires of purification. Before that, one only sees one’s ideals incarnate in someone else. Does it imply that it takes self-mastery to know the mastery in the other? I’d say so.
On the (need for) masters
Symptoms within neurosis are structured such that sexual or aggressive impulses are suppressed on various conscious grounds. This suppression brings about a curious form of ‘dissatisfying satisfaction’, satisfaction in the guise of suffering, which Lacan termed jouissance. As Freud puts it, reverse engineering the symptom structure:
‘We have every reason to believe that sensations of pain, like other unpleasurable sensations, verge on sexual excitation and produce a pleasurable condition, for the sake of which a subject will even willingly experience unpleasure of pain’.
The above is true for long-term conditioning under neurotic symptoms – the mind learns to draw pleasure out of various forms of deprivation.
Otherwise, if one is trained in meditative cultivation, bringing attentiveness to pain and investigating it gradually brings relief from pain. In comparison to previously experienced pain, relief from it is pleasurable.
‘We have every reason to believe that sensations of pain, like other unpleasurable sensations, verge on sexual excitation and produce a pleasurable condition, for the sake of which a subject will even willingly experience unpleasure of pain’.
The above is true for long-term conditioning under neurotic symptoms – the mind learns to draw pleasure out of various forms of deprivation.
Otherwise, if one is trained in meditative cultivation, bringing attentiveness to pain and investigating it gradually brings relief from pain. In comparison to previously experienced pain, relief from it is pleasurable.
Assuming that all beings have an innate wish for Nibbana, that is, freedom from stress, the innate mechanism of witnessing and investigating pain with the subsequent dissolution of the latter is also present within everyone. Perhaps this is a better way to explain neurotic predicament rather than in terms of drawing sexualised enjoyment out of pain, which is nothing else but perverted and also a bit sad. It is sad that suffering isn't resolved successfully through mindfulness and wisdom but instead infused with libido to draw a wicked kind of pleasure out of it as neurotics do with their suppressed bodily impulses.
Once the quota of traumatic experience exceeds bearable, a perverted pleasure is extracted from suffering to protect the psyche from a shattering encounter with the Real. Sick pleasure is better than aphanisis (disappearance of the subject). It arises in place of the absence of clear comprehension and mindfulness regarding dukkha, body as it is, and state of mind preoccupied with the body's impulses.
‘Horror at the pleasure of one's own, which one is not aware’ as Freud defined jouissance in the Rat Man, his famous obsessive patient, is secondary here: one is horrified to realise a despicable state of one's mind – one’s concise, which is also presumably innate in every sentient being, kicks in. Once perverted pleasure is detected, one can be sure that mindfulness, clear comprehension and wisdom are lost. This, rather than repression, is a hallmark of neurosis – loss of knowing things as they are when the quota of feelings exceeds the limit that the psyche can process.
By bringing the mind back into the body, soaking it into the body, and abiding with the mind in the body, we can reintegrate this self-loss, thereby alleviating symptoms of neurosis.
Once the quota of traumatic experience exceeds bearable, a perverted pleasure is extracted from suffering to protect the psyche from a shattering encounter with the Real. Sick pleasure is better than aphanisis (disappearance of the subject). It arises in place of the absence of clear comprehension and mindfulness regarding dukkha, body as it is, and state of mind preoccupied with the body's impulses.
‘Horror at the pleasure of one's own, which one is not aware’ as Freud defined jouissance in the Rat Man, his famous obsessive patient, is secondary here: one is horrified to realise a despicable state of one's mind – one’s concise, which is also presumably innate in every sentient being, kicks in. Once perverted pleasure is detected, one can be sure that mindfulness, clear comprehension and wisdom are lost. This, rather than repression, is a hallmark of neurosis – loss of knowing things as they are when the quota of feelings exceeds the limit that the psyche can process.
By bringing the mind back into the body, soaking it into the body, and abiding with the mind in the body, we can reintegrate this self-loss, thereby alleviating symptoms of neurosis.
On neurotic symptoms
The moment in itself is just that. At the moment devoid of thought, yin and yang are balanced, hence, it is such.
Yet, suchness is troublesome for the mind intent on becoming, therefore, the mind ascribes meaning to the moment.
Qualities discerned thereby are not inherent, but fabricated. Movement produced therefrom is not natural, it is contrived.
Having reflected on that, which might have occurred naturally, one passes the experience through databank of one's memories and acquired knowledge, thereby ascribing meaning to experience. One's insight may be quite sharp within confines of one's discipline. Yet, still, it is a fabricated knowledge, which misses the point.
Thus, meaning of experiences is always retroactive, because it is imbued with one's perceptions and intentions, which are dependent on things past.
Fabricating thereby, one misses the encounter with the Real.
Yet, suchness is troublesome for the mind intent on becoming, therefore, the mind ascribes meaning to the moment.
Qualities discerned thereby are not inherent, but fabricated. Movement produced therefrom is not natural, it is contrived.
Having reflected on that, which might have occurred naturally, one passes the experience through databank of one's memories and acquired knowledge, thereby ascribing meaning to experience. One's insight may be quite sharp within confines of one's discipline. Yet, still, it is a fabricated knowledge, which misses the point.
Thus, meaning of experiences is always retroactive, because it is imbued with one's perceptions and intentions, which are dependent on things past.
Fabricating thereby, one misses the encounter with the Real.
Confronted with overwhelming feelings, man chooses reason, thereby abandoning the heart.
Having understood the causality of one's overwhelm, one can come back to the heart.
Yet, this is mundane coping mechanism.
Both heart and mind, feelings and reason, are inadequate because one's 'story' perpetuates itself through them. One can never exhaust the 'story' - the unconscious cannot stop being written.
Yet, one can find stillness and spend enough time in it so that links within the 'story' begin to break down. No longer proliferating, mind rests, heart heals, body recovers. This is supramundane coping mechanism.
One way to find stillness is by following the associative unfolding of the unconscious thought until its termination in the Real. The sticking point, where associations hit upon that, which no longer can be explained out, is where the attentiveness can be absorbed into the body. However, it won't, if the mind is devoid of surrender.
The quality of attentively surrendering with trust into the wordless space of the self is the entry way into stillness.
Having understood the causality of one's overwhelm, one can come back to the heart.
Yet, this is mundane coping mechanism.
Both heart and mind, feelings and reason, are inadequate because one's 'story' perpetuates itself through them. One can never exhaust the 'story' - the unconscious cannot stop being written.
Yet, one can find stillness and spend enough time in it so that links within the 'story' begin to break down. No longer proliferating, mind rests, heart heals, body recovers. This is supramundane coping mechanism.
One way to find stillness is by following the associative unfolding of the unconscious thought until its termination in the Real. The sticking point, where associations hit upon that, which no longer can be explained out, is where the attentiveness can be absorbed into the body. However, it won't, if the mind is devoid of surrender.
The quality of attentively surrendering with trust into the wordless space of the self is the entry way into stillness.
Retroactivity of meaning
Stillness within the Story
As human beings, we’re dependent on the other. Being brought up, we pass through the other of our immediate caretakers, taking on their image and desire, as well as through the Other of language and culture, taking on assemblages of personality, fields of interests, creed, and praxis. It is here on the level of the Other that we identify with that, which brings us a sense of fulfilment for our utmost aspirations. It is also here that we so often make a mistake of ‘confusing a pointing finger for the Moon’.
Since our identity is so inextricably linked with that of significant others, we tend to confuse hoped outcomes of our soul’s journey with the means of achieving them. As such, we confuse someone who embodies certain virtues that we praise with the result of embodying those virtues ourselves. We confuse a method aimed at developing those virtues and qualities with eventual outcome of living in accordance with those virtues and qualities. In short, we confuse the means of attaining reality of peace and freedom with that reality. This is understandable, for we have no glimpse of this reality.
Because our acquired identity, i.e. psyche and mind conditioned by the other/Other, cherishes the sense of totality and comfort that identification with and attachment to teachers and methods brings, we tend to forget that this given method or teacher are not our goal, but simply one of the means of attaining it.
Whenever we feel that we are dependent upon, defensive of, and dogmatic about a certain creed, way, or teacher, it is the time to look within, for it is precisely this that blocks us from seeing the reality of freedom.
May all beings be free from dependence on that, which is false, and strive towards the true!
Since our identity is so inextricably linked with that of significant others, we tend to confuse hoped outcomes of our soul’s journey with the means of achieving them. As such, we confuse someone who embodies certain virtues that we praise with the result of embodying those virtues ourselves. We confuse a method aimed at developing those virtues and qualities with eventual outcome of living in accordance with those virtues and qualities. In short, we confuse the means of attaining reality of peace and freedom with that reality. This is understandable, for we have no glimpse of this reality.
Because our acquired identity, i.e. psyche and mind conditioned by the other/Other, cherishes the sense of totality and comfort that identification with and attachment to teachers and methods brings, we tend to forget that this given method or teacher are not our goal, but simply one of the means of attaining it.
Whenever we feel that we are dependent upon, defensive of, and dogmatic about a certain creed, way, or teacher, it is the time to look within, for it is precisely this that blocks us from seeing the reality of freedom.
May all beings be free from dependence on that, which is false, and strive towards the true!
No Other
There is no ultimate and final Other of cultivation.
What does this mean?
It means that there are no greatest teachers, no supreme gurus, no complete systems, no best methods, and no one out there to bestow the final answer to a subject’s search for fulfillment of their utmost aspirations.
How is this so?
To understand this correctly, we should look into the psychic structure of human subjectivity.
What does this mean?
It means that there are no greatest teachers, no supreme gurus, no complete systems, no best methods, and no one out there to bestow the final answer to a subject’s search for fulfillment of their utmost aspirations.
How is this so?
To understand this correctly, we should look into the psychic structure of human subjectivity.
It is hard to downplay how much desire of the other determines one's innermost motivations.
Brought into being via image and desire of the other, human subjects, irrespective of their structure, are dependent upon this desire. It is this desire that pushes one to act or resist acting. It is frustration of or resistance to this desire that is at the root of depression, inhibition and dissatisfaction. Yet hardly anyone is free from this desire, not determined by it, free in one's choices.
Notwithstanding image of the other incorporated as foundation of the ego to form somatosensory plethora of a given individual, the words, injunctions and wishes of the other are crucial in causing a subject to be a particular 'someone'.
In particular, those aspects of super ego connected with judgement, blame, disparagement, expectations, in short, conditions to be fulfilled to earn the other's love and acceptance, are widespread hidden engines, which 'run' a subject.
Brought into being via image and desire of the other, human subjects, irrespective of their structure, are dependent upon this desire. It is this desire that pushes one to act or resist acting. It is frustration of or resistance to this desire that is at the root of depression, inhibition and dissatisfaction. Yet hardly anyone is free from this desire, not determined by it, free in one's choices.
Notwithstanding image of the other incorporated as foundation of the ego to form somatosensory plethora of a given individual, the words, injunctions and wishes of the other are crucial in causing a subject to be a particular 'someone'.
In particular, those aspects of super ego connected with judgement, blame, disparagement, expectations, in short, conditions to be fulfilled to earn the other's love and acceptance, are widespread hidden engines, which 'run' a subject.
However, as desires, those aspects are harmless. They acquire harmful quality when confused for demand, persecution, or laceration of the body.
Such as, neurotics confuse the other's desire for demand and run themselves into the ground trying to fulfil it. Thereby, desires of parents, ideals of society and aspirations of religion become whips that constantly nag a subject onwards to live and achieve. For psychotics, the other's desire is persecutory, since it cannot be sufficiently named by separating signifiers that structure the Symbolic order. This desire is perceived by a psychotic as a continuous attempt on a subject's very existence. As a form of defence against that desire, a psychotics subject erects delusion - systematic in case of paranoiacs and disparate in case of schozophrenics. Whereas autistic subjects unsubscribe from the order of the other's desirousness entirely, having experienced it as mutilating on the level of one's libidinal body. An autist does not enter the order of signifiers, which carries the other's desire across, which allows them to be in a way isolated, yet not free, since another order of speech has to be constructed instead of the order of (neurotic) language.
Not a single structure, therefore, takes the other's desire for desire alone. For various reasons, desire of the other has a heavier weight on a subject to the extent that the very relationship to it determines the psychic structure.
We can, however, hypothesise a structure, which takes desire for what it is - just desire. What is a desire but a flow of aspiration? Taken as such, not exaggerated, it is simply energy of unfolding human soul - Hun (魂) - that seeks expression and development. Taken lightly as it is, the other's desire stops being a slave driver, a surveillance agent or a maniac, but simply remains a flow, which a subject can ride at their leisure or step out of.
Having realised the nature of desire, one can make a basic differentiation. There are
- desires for the world
- desires beyond the world
Worldly desires are the flow of energy that sustains Samsara. Desires beyond the world are those that sustain the Path to freedom from Samsara.
The natures of two are different: one seeks to pass on the knowledge and virtue of living, another seeks to transmit the virtue and method of practice that leads to transcendence of living.
It is necessary to choose which flow of desire one pursues. Whilst it is impossible to practice two at the same time, it is possible to live in the world and practice the path that leads beyond the world. Clarity with regard to one's aspiration is crucial here. One can be living in the world, doing worldly things, yet one's pull is towards that, which transcends it.
A basic feature of this pull is that it leaves one in a space of non-belonging: not dependent on the desire of the other for the world, one is a drop off. Here it becomes crucial to have good friends on the Path. These people are rare and sincere, for they share desire for freedom from the world and have fortitude to pursue it. They can give wise advise and provide support that counters the sense of non-belonging. Yet, in one's pursuit, one should avoid depending on their desire either and instead be staying true to one's aspirations and efforts.
Having made clear one's stance vis-a-vis desire of the other, one is free to manifest the utmost desire of one's Soul.
Such as, neurotics confuse the other's desire for demand and run themselves into the ground trying to fulfil it. Thereby, desires of parents, ideals of society and aspirations of religion become whips that constantly nag a subject onwards to live and achieve. For psychotics, the other's desire is persecutory, since it cannot be sufficiently named by separating signifiers that structure the Symbolic order. This desire is perceived by a psychotic as a continuous attempt on a subject's very existence. As a form of defence against that desire, a psychotics subject erects delusion - systematic in case of paranoiacs and disparate in case of schozophrenics. Whereas autistic subjects unsubscribe from the order of the other's desirousness entirely, having experienced it as mutilating on the level of one's libidinal body. An autist does not enter the order of signifiers, which carries the other's desire across, which allows them to be in a way isolated, yet not free, since another order of speech has to be constructed instead of the order of (neurotic) language.
Not a single structure, therefore, takes the other's desire for desire alone. For various reasons, desire of the other has a heavier weight on a subject to the extent that the very relationship to it determines the psychic structure.
We can, however, hypothesise a structure, which takes desire for what it is - just desire. What is a desire but a flow of aspiration? Taken as such, not exaggerated, it is simply energy of unfolding human soul - Hun (魂) - that seeks expression and development. Taken lightly as it is, the other's desire stops being a slave driver, a surveillance agent or a maniac, but simply remains a flow, which a subject can ride at their leisure or step out of.
Having realised the nature of desire, one can make a basic differentiation. There are
- desires for the world
- desires beyond the world
Worldly desires are the flow of energy that sustains Samsara. Desires beyond the world are those that sustain the Path to freedom from Samsara.
The natures of two are different: one seeks to pass on the knowledge and virtue of living, another seeks to transmit the virtue and method of practice that leads to transcendence of living.
It is necessary to choose which flow of desire one pursues. Whilst it is impossible to practice two at the same time, it is possible to live in the world and practice the path that leads beyond the world. Clarity with regard to one's aspiration is crucial here. One can be living in the world, doing worldly things, yet one's pull is towards that, which transcends it.
A basic feature of this pull is that it leaves one in a space of non-belonging: not dependent on the desire of the other for the world, one is a drop off. Here it becomes crucial to have good friends on the Path. These people are rare and sincere, for they share desire for freedom from the world and have fortitude to pursue it. They can give wise advise and provide support that counters the sense of non-belonging. Yet, in one's pursuit, one should avoid depending on their desire either and instead be staying true to one's aspirations and efforts.
Having made clear one's stance vis-a-vis desire of the other, one is free to manifest the utmost desire of one's Soul.
On desire of the Other
What if a psychotic subject's resistance to and rejection of the master signifier is an act of faith? That is, what if it is for the sake of renunciation and aspiration for divinity that one doesn't accept injunctions, which make one neurotic, set one up for spinning in the rat race and forgetting the essential indeterminism of human being under heaven upon earth?
Isn't it accidental that the content of most psychotic delusions is religious narrative of some kind?
Is the question of origin only at stake? Or is it the case that one has opened oneself up to the unknowable, yet hasn't had resources of virtue and concentration to penetrate to attainment of transcendental wisdom?
What if psychosis is failed yet valid attempt of touching upon the divinity?
Isn't it accidental that the content of most psychotic delusions is religious narrative of some kind?
Is the question of origin only at stake? Or is it the case that one has opened oneself up to the unknowable, yet hasn't had resources of virtue and concentration to penetrate to attainment of transcendental wisdom?
What if psychosis is failed yet valid attempt of touching upon the divinity?
In this light, one can conceptualise psychosis not as 'disorder within language', but as earnest striving for transcendence without reliance on existing paradigms. The task is tremendous and unachievable. Yet if one is to read the prophets, aren't their discourses a pure flow of highly affective, revelatory of the mass unconscious at the time, yet delusory narrative? And at that they accomplish this task at odds with dominant master discourse of either Judaism or Roman legislation.
Such is the psychotic project: to bring about the new path and let the soul soar where previously there was suffocating stagnation caused by rigidity of the forceful dominant discourse.
Such is the psychotic project: to bring about the new path and let the soul soar where previously there was suffocating stagnation caused by rigidity of the forceful dominant discourse.
A view on psychosis
Reasons good friendship is equated to 'all of the spiritual Path' are many.
Foremost amongst them is consistency. Recognising and valuing each other, friends create continuity that endures. One aspect of mindfulness is remembrance: keeping track of things. Friends keeping a consistent relationship with each other ensure that no-one falls into oblivion and 'loses the plot'.
It is increasingly rare in the modern world of fleeting connections, quick dealings and chance encounters to establish and sustain consistent relations with people. To adhere to such a demanding endeavour as spiritual practice requires utmost consistency, yet, in such a way that it is not forced. Friendship allows for this not enforced consistency, whereby being around each other in good and bad times is all good.
Foremost amongst them is consistency. Recognising and valuing each other, friends create continuity that endures. One aspect of mindfulness is remembrance: keeping track of things. Friends keeping a consistent relationship with each other ensure that no-one falls into oblivion and 'loses the plot'.
It is increasingly rare in the modern world of fleeting connections, quick dealings and chance encounters to establish and sustain consistent relations with people. To adhere to such a demanding endeavour as spiritual practice requires utmost consistency, yet, in such a way that it is not forced. Friendship allows for this not enforced consistency, whereby being around each other in good and bad times is all good.
Another reason is acceptance. Being with a friend, one is in the field of acceptance of one's person. It is not acceptance of one's bad behaviour and unsavoury character traits - a good friend will pull one up on such things - but acceptance of one's peculiarities, attachments and imperfections, areas of weakness and parts that hurt. It is acceptance of work-to-be-done. Friends give each other space to grow and learn by creating it together.
Yet another reason is that good friendship is devoid of attachments and projections, which are usually taking place in intimate relationships. Whereas romantic partnerships are heavily laden with entanglement and re-delegation of blame, due to the intense nature of emotions and sexuality that are involved, friendships are free from such things, which allows for clarity and trust. It is rare that under pressure of unresolved emotional hang ups and sexual craving there can be clarity and trust in romance, unless partners are working on themselves individually or together in therapy and are mature enough to be able to handle the onslaught of surfacing unconscious material. This is why romantic partnerships are more powerful in bringing a couple to the realisation of the Soul, yet also more dangerous. Friendships, however, allow for a more gradual path that is comparatively devoid of turbulence.
Amongst many other reasons, these three - consistency, acceptance and freedom from confusing entanglements - are central in making friendship the whole of the Path.
May you all find and sustain good friendships!
(The drawing above depicts St Paul and St Peter in brotherly embrace)
Yet another reason is that good friendship is devoid of attachments and projections, which are usually taking place in intimate relationships. Whereas romantic partnerships are heavily laden with entanglement and re-delegation of blame, due to the intense nature of emotions and sexuality that are involved, friendships are free from such things, which allows for clarity and trust. It is rare that under pressure of unresolved emotional hang ups and sexual craving there can be clarity and trust in romance, unless partners are working on themselves individually or together in therapy and are mature enough to be able to handle the onslaught of surfacing unconscious material. This is why romantic partnerships are more powerful in bringing a couple to the realisation of the Soul, yet also more dangerous. Friendships, however, allow for a more gradual path that is comparatively devoid of turbulence.
Amongst many other reasons, these three - consistency, acceptance and freedom from confusing entanglements - are central in making friendship the whole of the Path.
May you all find and sustain good friendships!
(The drawing above depicts St Paul and St Peter in brotherly embrace)
Good Friendship
Neurodiversity and the Pathways to Cultivation
There are people in this world who do not fit in. The conventional fabric of society doesn’t accommodate them. And yet it is their very being that changes that fabric.
Inclusion of ‘otherness of the other’ is a transformational act and a path of acceptance on the social scale.
However, when it comes to spiritual cultivation, inclusivity and acceptance of otherness are only the baby steps. To go further, one needs to purify conduct, accumulate virtue, govern the energy and train the mind, such that one is suitable for the work of deification.
Whereas neurodiverse and neurotypical are those subjects who are incredibly particular and unique in who they are, which deserves acceptance, within spiritual cultivation there is a certain linearity of practice that yields results. Within the framework of this practice, one has to have the qualities developed, which will be determinative of whether one can still the mind and absorb the attention, which carries energy, into the object in order to touch upon the Soul or not.
Whether one is autistic, bipolar, borderline, multiple personality, psychotic, experiencing post-traumatic stress, obsessive, hysterical, phobic or perverted, it is what one does, what one says and which mental states one generates on the moment by moment basis that determine whether one is suitable for spiritual cultivation or not.
The traditions of the practice are not generalising when they come up with fixed rules, such as precepts or commandments, guidelines for conduct, training methods, lists of duties to fulfil and qualities to master, they are simply laying out the Path - how things have been done by the sages of the far and near past. They are not adapting these guidelines specifically to a given kind of neurodiverse subject because the idea is that the Path is something more profound, fundamental and timeless than complex particularities of a given finite subjectivity. It is subjectivity that it is to be nuanced, challenged and transformed by means of cultivation of the Path to make one into someone capable of receiving its fruits.
The Path is greater than a subject. This maxim, however, is still hard to swallow in the climate of the day and age where individualism, respect of personal choices and identifications, which more often than not reflect attachments, is a norm to abide by. For this reason, it is wise to discriminate between worldly and non-worldly ways of practice.
In the world, we must do everything in our power to accommodate neurodiverse members of society by giving equal opportunities, alternative solutions, creating jobs, providing culturally, linguistically, and psychologically inclusive environments where all beings can dwell, express themselves, and be of service to each other. The way of the world is to create suitable markets for each group of interests and habits of mental functioning, that is, to be in the business of profiting from the otherness.
Whereas there is yet another subterranean current outside and despite the world, which runs in the opposite direction from the pinnacle of worldly values, that is, from ‘becoming’. Aspiration-driven ‘becoming someone’ either by fulfilling one’s dreams or achieving one’s goals is the correct way to be in the world. Yet, for those who also have an urge to go further and transcend the world, there are different motifs. These motifs and guidelines constitute the deeper current of life, dare I say, a more profound one, a more fundamental one.
Regardless of one’s neuropsychic constitution, the subterranean current of spiritual cultivation remains universal: develop virtue, abandon unwholesome actions, purify physical, verbal, and mental conduct, govern the mind, develop discernment, attain stillness, absorb into an object, which will give you access to that, which is neither mind nor body, surrender to it, and let it transform you. Regardless ‘flavor’ that is given to this practice by culture, rituals, and customs of a given tradition of spiritual cultivation, these steps remain inherent to any path and applicable to any subjectivity.
However, what I often see these days is that people are trying to adapt these principles to their own subjective makeup to the extent of inventing new methods of cultivation or bending these principles to suit their style of attachment. This reminds me of a scene from the TV show ‘Firelfy’ when River has taken and ‘fixed’ Shepherd Book’s Holy Bible claiming that it was ‘broken’. Seeing this, Shepherd tells her that faith is not about correcting something but about taking these principles up and letting them change oneself.
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Inclusion of ‘otherness of the other’ is a transformational act and a path of acceptance on the social scale.
However, when it comes to spiritual cultivation, inclusivity and acceptance of otherness are only the baby steps. To go further, one needs to purify conduct, accumulate virtue, govern the energy and train the mind, such that one is suitable for the work of deification.
Whereas neurodiverse and neurotypical are those subjects who are incredibly particular and unique in who they are, which deserves acceptance, within spiritual cultivation there is a certain linearity of practice that yields results. Within the framework of this practice, one has to have the qualities developed, which will be determinative of whether one can still the mind and absorb the attention, which carries energy, into the object in order to touch upon the Soul or not.
Whether one is autistic, bipolar, borderline, multiple personality, psychotic, experiencing post-traumatic stress, obsessive, hysterical, phobic or perverted, it is what one does, what one says and which mental states one generates on the moment by moment basis that determine whether one is suitable for spiritual cultivation or not.
The traditions of the practice are not generalising when they come up with fixed rules, such as precepts or commandments, guidelines for conduct, training methods, lists of duties to fulfil and qualities to master, they are simply laying out the Path - how things have been done by the sages of the far and near past. They are not adapting these guidelines specifically to a given kind of neurodiverse subject because the idea is that the Path is something more profound, fundamental and timeless than complex particularities of a given finite subjectivity. It is subjectivity that it is to be nuanced, challenged and transformed by means of cultivation of the Path to make one into someone capable of receiving its fruits.
The Path is greater than a subject. This maxim, however, is still hard to swallow in the climate of the day and age where individualism, respect of personal choices and identifications, which more often than not reflect attachments, is a norm to abide by. For this reason, it is wise to discriminate between worldly and non-worldly ways of practice.
In the world, we must do everything in our power to accommodate neurodiverse members of society by giving equal opportunities, alternative solutions, creating jobs, providing culturally, linguistically, and psychologically inclusive environments where all beings can dwell, express themselves, and be of service to each other. The way of the world is to create suitable markets for each group of interests and habits of mental functioning, that is, to be in the business of profiting from the otherness.
Whereas there is yet another subterranean current outside and despite the world, which runs in the opposite direction from the pinnacle of worldly values, that is, from ‘becoming’. Aspiration-driven ‘becoming someone’ either by fulfilling one’s dreams or achieving one’s goals is the correct way to be in the world. Yet, for those who also have an urge to go further and transcend the world, there are different motifs. These motifs and guidelines constitute the deeper current of life, dare I say, a more profound one, a more fundamental one.
Regardless of one’s neuropsychic constitution, the subterranean current of spiritual cultivation remains universal: develop virtue, abandon unwholesome actions, purify physical, verbal, and mental conduct, govern the mind, develop discernment, attain stillness, absorb into an object, which will give you access to that, which is neither mind nor body, surrender to it, and let it transform you. Regardless ‘flavor’ that is given to this practice by culture, rituals, and customs of a given tradition of spiritual cultivation, these steps remain inherent to any path and applicable to any subjectivity.
However, what I often see these days is that people are trying to adapt these principles to their own subjective makeup to the extent of inventing new methods of cultivation or bending these principles to suit their style of attachment. This reminds me of a scene from the TV show ‘Firelfy’ when River has taken and ‘fixed’ Shepherd Book’s Holy Bible claiming that it was ‘broken’. Seeing this, Shepherd tells her that faith is not about correcting something but about taking these principles up and letting them change oneself.
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Therapy, self-development and cultivation Therapy and self-development are not the same. However, many therapeutic approaches do just the latter. The other way around is also widespread: people seek healing in approaches tailored for self-development, whereas they should be seeking therapeutic assistance. A more concrete example: going to Qigong or Yoga class or to a religious institution to sort out one's traumas. Or else, seeking guidance regarding one's path in life from a psychotherapist. The lack of discernment regarding compartmentalisation is a source of confusion: when therapy and self-development are mixed, one may well keep on 'healing inner wounds' with the idea that it'll help one to advance in life or even touch upon something transcended. Whereas, in truth, there are completely different mechanisms behind healing and inner development, and yet another different mechanism for spiritual practice. Many times therapy is not needed, and there are times, such as consequences of acute disruptive experiences to continuity of one's sense of self, that it is needed. When it is needed, it shouldn't be a long term thing: once integration is done, one ought to move on, otherwise reinforcing a sense of damaged self occurs through therapy. The more long-term transformative engagements are an avenue for self-development practices, which may or may not develop into spiritual practice. |
This is so because 'self', being a construct devoid of unchanging substance, can only develop up to a certain threshold, after which it collapses into self-obsession, confusion and either nihilistic renunciation of the world or megalomaniac affirmation of one's self-importance.
Therapy, which remains an affair of self, risks hitting the same pitfalls by investing attention into that which happens on a transient level of identity and, instead of helping it to dissolve, solidifies it, causing a person to stay in therapy for years, constantly 'reshuffling' the components of inner subjective makeup.
Here it is important to differentiate between various therapeutic modalities, because some of them, upon close inspection, turn out to be disciplines of self-development and even border on spiritual cultivation. Lacanian psychoanalysis is one such modality, which, if done correctly, takes years to accomplish and, via deep scrutiny of one's inner motivations, leads to something called 'subjective destitution' or 'benevolent depersonalisation'.
The latter, essentially, is a form of dissolution of the unconscious knots, which ground experience of self as real and lasting, showing instead how this experience is a causatively arisen construct devoid of independent existence. Because of the process and outcomes involved, Lacanian psychoanalysis cannot be classified as therapy, but instead stands on the side of self- to spiritual development.
With regard to spiritual cultivation proper, a very different set of mechanisms is involved, which is designed to override fear rooted in the loss of sense of self, thereby opening a possibility for a person to merge with that, which transcends identifications. Depending on a tradition, this mechanism is grounded either in somatically based, consciousness based or heartmind based stratum of human being.
Here it is important to differentiate between various therapeutic modalities, because some of them, upon close inspection, turn out to be disciplines of self-development and even border on spiritual cultivation. Lacanian psychoanalysis is one such modality, which, if done correctly, takes years to accomplish and, via deep scrutiny of one's inner motivations, leads to something called 'subjective destitution' or 'benevolent depersonalisation'.
The latter, essentially, is a form of dissolution of the unconscious knots, which ground experience of self as real and lasting, showing instead how this experience is a causatively arisen construct devoid of independent existence. Because of the process and outcomes involved, Lacanian psychoanalysis cannot be classified as therapy, but instead stands on the side of self- to spiritual development.
With regard to spiritual cultivation proper, a very different set of mechanisms is involved, which is designed to override fear rooted in the loss of sense of self, thereby opening a possibility for a person to merge with that, which transcends identifications. Depending on a tradition, this mechanism is grounded either in somatically based, consciousness based or heartmind based stratum of human being.